Economy Adds 31,000 Factory Jobs in November

By Matthew McMullan
Dec 08 2017 |
A worker installs a seat into a Ford F-150 at a factory in Missouri. | Photo via Wikimedia Commons

A pretty healthy pace as the year winds down.

Jobs Day! It’s Jobs Day, everyone! How did we do? Let’s got to CNBC:

The economy added 228,000 jobs this month – and it’s the fourth month in a row the economy has added factory jobs (31,000, to be exact).

Man, you know we like that at the Alliance for American Manufacturing. Employment growth in the manufacturing sector has been good in 2017; 171,000 total jobs since the beginning of January. By the time the year is out, the total will most likely be just under the best year the Obama administratoin (2014, when 208,000 were created).

President Trump, we’re sure, is pleased with the results.

Yup! He is.

Anyway, Here what AAM President Scott Paul had to say:

A healthy boost in manufacturing jobs is something to cheer about.

Now imagine the possibilities if we had better public policies to support manufacturing: Reciprocal trade, investments in infrastructure, workforce development, and strong R&D.

I've made the case that automation and robots won't destroy all that many factory jobs, but bad policies will. I hope the million-plus manufacturing jobs added since 2010 make that case even more persuasive.