In 2016, manufacturing accounted for 13.1% of total US employment. Since then, the number of jobs in the industry has shrunk by 2.5%. The loss of these jobs has been devastating for the manufacturing workforce, especially for the low-skilled workers who are losing their jobs the fastest.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the manufacturing sector has lost nearly 1.5 million jobs since the Great Recession began in 2007. Of course, these numbers are alarming, but they aren’t telling the whole story. By comparing manufacturing job growth with the rest of the US workforce, we can see that manufacturing jobs are still growing more slowly than overall jobs. But why is that happening? Let’s dive into the data to find out.
What Are the Different Types of Manufacturing?
There are several types of manufacturing, including contract manufacturing, offshore, and in-house. What makes each unique?
The most obvious difference is the cost to run operations. With contract manufacturing, there’s a middleman in the middle taking a cut of the revenue. With offshore, manufacturers have the advantage of saving money on labor and working at cheaper rates.
Finally, in-house manufacturing is when a company is running all its operations itself.
Which Manufacturing Sector Is Losing the Most Jobs?
Manufacturing has been going down for years. If you live in an area where there is a lot of manufacturing, you should expect a lot of job loss. Since there are fewer people working in manufacturing, there are also fewer jobs.
A lot of those jobs were being done by immigrants. Now, many of those immigrants are leaving the country because they couldn’t find a job. Some people think that the number of manufacturing jobs is going to increase, but it probably won’t happen until manufacturing starts making things again.
