Making It In America
Featured Issues
Building a Smart Grid, Smartly
By Eric Lotke
October 27th, 2009
President Barack Obama announced today $3.4 billion in government grants to help build a "smart" electric grid. Like many Obama initiatives, it’s a smart first step. But much more is needed and one piece is rarely mentioned at all. more »
Our Demand: Create American Jobs
TAKE ACTION A Chinese company stands to produce 2,000 manufacturing jobs in China with the aid of American Recover Act funds? Tell the Energy Department you want stimulus money to fund green energy projects that create American jobs.
» Send a message to Energy Secretary Steven Chu.
GET THE BACKGROUND on our "Create American Jobs" page.
ERIC LOTKE ON THE LATEST JOBS NUMBERS: The solution to 10.2 percent unemployment leaps out from the government data: “During this downturn we can rebuild a productive economy for the future.”
» Read: “New Unemployment, Old Solutions” | “Green Shoots: For Whom?”
... more »
"Building The New Economy" Conference Tackles Jobs Agenda
Close to 300 leaders from labor, business, academia and politics participated in our Washington conference October 29 to outline the industrial and trade policies we need to ensure a broad prosperity based on good American jobs. Watch videos of the sessions on the conference main page »
SPECIAL REPORT
Building The New Economy: Where We’re Going. How We’ll Get There. This report makes the case for and outlines the key elements of a new industrial policy.
Read the report »
ONLINE FORUM
Essays from U.S. Steel CEO John Surma, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, United Steelworkers Union president LEO Gerard, Institute for America's Future director Robert Borosage, Allance for American Manufacturing President Scott Paul and others discuss how we can get our manufacturing sector back on track, and why doing so is essential to our future.
Go to the forum »
... more »
The Facts
Making It In America: Building The New Economy
We can’t go back to the economy of the past—a high-consumption, low-wage economy based on asset bubbles and foreign borrowing. Our response to the current crisis must plant the seeds for the economy of the future. America needs an industrial policy to shape that future. From workforce development to component manufacture, we need a strategic collaboration between the private sector and the government to reach our shared national goals. This report makes the case for that policy and explains what should be the key elements.more »
Make it in America
The U.S. manufacturing sector is in trouble. Since 1999, a total of 4.6 million U.S. manufacturing jobs have disappeared, many of them sent overseas. More than a million manufacturing jobs have been lost since the start of the current recession in December 2007, including 200,000 in January 2009 alone.1 These are some of the country’s best middle-class jobs, paying an average of $25,000 more per year than service sector jobs and often providing benefits such as health care and pensions. For workers without four-year college degrees, these jobs have long been the ticket to the American middle class. As manufacturing and associated jobs disappear, the only option for many workers is a low-paid service sector job without clear career advancement opportunities. The result: growing inequality and a dramatically shrinking middle class.more »
The News
White House Hopes Trade Can Bolster Labor Market
November 9th, 2009
World Bank Chief Economist: China Should Leave its Currency Alone
November 9th, 2009
The Case
Creating the Jobs America Needs
While financial markets believe the great recession is over, millions of Americans continue to struggle. Unemployment is 10.2 percent and the more inclusive measure, underemployment, is at 17.5 percent. America's jobs crisis is both a short-term and long-term problem. Therefore, the Obama Administration faces both a tactical problem and a strategic challenge. Citizens need to have jobs as soon as possible but a sustainable recovery requires restructuring of the economy. more »
A Devil of a Job for Democrats
Forget making everyone healthy and saving the polar bears. If Democrats can't solve the jobs problem, next year's elections will be an uphill battle.more »
Latest from our Bloggers
nov
20
2009
4:17 pm
4:17 pm
The dispute over whether or not a Texas wind farm receiving federal subsidies would source its components from a Chinese manufacturer has come to a more agreeable solution, with the partnering companies agreeing to open a 1,000 person turbine factory in the US more »
nov
19
2009
6:01 pm
6:01 pm
Have you heard of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission? Their job is to assess the national security implications of the trade and economic relationship between the United States and the People's Republic of China. Actually, that’s a big deal, especially now. more »
nov
19
2009
11:52 am
11:52 am
It turns out a Texas windmill farm developer's request last month for nearly half a billion in stimulus funds to create 2,000 jobs in China doesn't rank first on the audacity scale.
Shockingly for American taxpayers, and sadly for the staggering 10.2 percent of Americans who are unemployed, it doesn't even rank second.
nov
19
2009
11:04 am
11:04 am
President Obama is home from China and the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission today releases its 2009 report to Congress. What have we learned? That we need to pay attention because we’re getting schooled. more »
nov
18
2009
2:57 pm
2:57 pm
The country needs a jobs program and needs it right now. Cash for Caulkers would be a good start. A new Civilian Conservation Corps would be another. But let's not allow a jobs program to cover over the need for real changes in the structure and core principles of our economy. more »
nov
18
2009
10:56 am
10:56 am
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gets it. No wonder she drives the wingnuts batty.
more »nov
18
2009
10:07 am
10:07 am
I like that President Obama accords his Asian peers with respect, bowing if tradition calls for it, even though it raises the hackles of some wingnuts. But bowing to the wishes of China is another matter altogether. I'm completely underwhelmed with the results of the President's trip to China, especially with so much at stake. more »
nov
17
2009
4:11 pm
4:11 pm
From Bloomberg, we learn how China is pushing an ambitious domestic clean economy agenda, planning large scale projects that will keep their citizens employed and civil unrest at bay. more »
