About 97 percent of clothing sold in the United States is imported, according to the American Apparel & Footwear Association. In developed economies like the U.S. and Canada, manufacturing and mining is giving way to the service and high tech sectors. For example, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 1960, 1 in 4 Americans had a job in manufacturing. Today, it’s fewer than 1 in 10. The industrial age is over and the information age is here. U.S. coal mining declined 25 percent since 2008, which resulted in 50,000 jobs being lost over a four-year period. The mining industry, in general, lost more than 191,000 jobs since 2014. Trying to resuscitate coal mining is a costly waste of time and resources. Today, renewable energy is where the growth in the U.S. is, as evidenced by the solar industry’s growth rate of 20 percent annually. It’s noteworthy that China aims to spend at least $360 Billion on renewable energy by 2020.
How we manufacture has also dramatically changed primarily due to the impact of automation. In order to be competitive and cost-effective, companies have little choice but to automate their processes, thereby requiring fewer employees. In addition, they require better educated, trained and skilled workers. Moreover, U.S. and Canadian manufacturers cannot and need not compete with emerging countries which have an abundance of cheap labour. In order to be competitive, they need to innovate and increase their productivity.
Innovation is the name of the game. The tech industry employs millions of Americans and Canadians. Practically all new private sector jobs have been created by businesses less than five years old. In the digital age, the U.S. and Canada have a major advantage, especially when it comes to the growing service sector. Consumers are increasingly looking for the provision of good, timely and more localized services. This includes more efficient modes of communication.
Investment in new technologies and people is what drives economic growth and the creation of new jobs. We need to focus on our new, innovative industries that will put us ahead of our global competition, not on the implementation of protectionist policies. You can’t turn the clocks back to an earlier period. Globalization and new technologies have changed all that. Whether President Trump likes it or not, tomorrow’s transition in job creation is already happening regardless of his unrealistic promises and ineffective policies.
FROLITICKS 