U.S. Manufacturing job losses: 20% since 2000

Congressional Budget Office released a report called, “The factors underlying the decline in manufacturing employment since 2000.”

Besides the overall percentage of job losses, the three biggest sectors were:

Textile mills: 59.6%

Apparel: 58.0%

Leather and allied products: 47.2%

Is there anything surprising about the findings of this report?  Not really.  Still, seeing the raw numbers in black and white is disturbing.  The one finding that might assist in the fight for universal health insurance is how the fixed costs of employee benefits helped cause U.S. products to be n0n-competitive against goods from other countries because the employers paid health insurance costs.  Hopefully, businesses will make the argument that universal health care will make the entire manufacturing sector of the U.S. economy more productive.

Tags: health care, Linkedin, manufacturing jobs, manufacturing sectors, universal healthcare