Don’t count on Mfg. to create large number of future jobs.

According to the house Democrat’s “Our Agenda”, when more products are made in America, there will be greater opportunity for our people to Make it in America”. This implies more jobs through the growing mfg. sector.

Donald Trump claims on the campaign trail that he will bring back mfg. to USA and along with it lots and lots of jobs.

These claims for large employment and more number of jobs through manufacturing sector are at odds with what is happening in the real world.

The role and impact of labor cost is gradually declining in most manufacturing activities. With the rapidly declining cost for information processing and increasing competencies through programmable automation (robots, CNC, AGV, drones, etc.) the need for human labor in manufacturing sector is substantially lower today than any time before. Hence large segments of manufacturing may return to US on their own accord. But it is unlikely that they will bring back the large number of jobs lost in the manufacturing sector.

Enabled by IT (Digital Technology in a broader context) we see a constant elimination of human labor for information work. Aided by DT (Programmable automation) robots will also replace large need for human workers. Both of them do not bode well for large scale employment through manufacturing sector. As evidence please see the attached:

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/161028/20160526/it-has-begun-apple-supplier-foxconn-replaces-60-000-employees-with-robots.htm

Meaningful impact in national mfg. strategy and employment policies are beyond the scope of individual professionals. Of course they can voice their views and shape the dialogue through their participation in national dialogue and through professional societies. Beyond that one should take hold of their individual careers through a set of skills acquired through education, application /training /experience and Transformational skills.