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The Labor Department reported today that 28,000 manufacturing jobs were added in July. The report added, "Job gains occurred in motor vehicles and parts (+15,000) and in furniture and related products (+3,000). Over the prior 12 months, manufacturing had added an average of 12,000 jobs per month, primarily in durable goods industries."

The Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) updated their meter of manufacturing jobs, called the #AAMeter. This meter tracks the progress of President Obama's promise to create 1 million new manufacturing jobs in his second term. July's report puts the #AAMeter at +195,000 jobs. This is on pace to meet his goal, but the meter has rarely met the goal before this.

Scott Paul, President of the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) :

"Manufacturing punched above its weight in July, showing that a rebound in the sector is possible. But we still have a long way to go. While the private sector has recovered all the jobs lost during the Great Recession, manufacturing is only 30 percent of the way back, and there are many obstacles that stand in the way of a true resurgence: a paucity of investment in our infrastructure, high trade deficits, and currency manipulation by countries like China and Japan.

"It’s important for Congress and the administration to get the policy right so that we’ll have more to cheer about. The significance of the auto sector and its supply chain was amplified by the July jobs numbers, accounting for more than half of manufacturing job gains. To keep this sector healthy and vibrant, we should build on that by ensuring that trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership prohibit currency manipulation."

Fixing Aging Infrastructure = Badly-Needed Jobs -- AND It Gets The Aging Infrastructure Fixed

A really great way to bring tons of manufacturing and other jobs to the economy would be to just fix our infrastructure. We have to do this anyway, and it gets more expensive every day we wait to get started. This has been "deferred" since the Reagan tax cuts. As a result, we have bridges actually falling down and killing people. We have roads that are so bad that they are causing crashes and damaging vehicles. Our water systems are breaking down -- just this week 20 million gallons of water flooded the UCLA campus after a water-main break. 20 million gallons lost in the middle of a drought! Our 1930s power grid is unreliable and wasteful. Don't even mention our 1950s rail system.

If we could just invest in the infrastructure we already have it would provide millions of jobs. There are the direct jobs working on the infrastructure. There are the jobs in the Buy America supply chain. There are the jobs of all the businesses that support all of those jobs and people.

It's a no-brainer. Which is probably why Republicans oppose it.

AAM has an online petition call-to-action, "Members of Congress are about to leave Washington for their summer recess. Before they go, let’s tell them to get serious about creating manufacturing jobs by rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure."

Click the link and AAM will tell you more.

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