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Parting Shots

By Wm. R. Lowry
Editor & Publisher, MiBiz
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note-able quotes

“Manufacturing is what is advancing Michigan’s future. There is a myth that manufacturing is a dying industry, that it is a dinosaur, but that just isn’t true. Manufacturing is what is driving growth; not just in Michigan, but nationally.”

— Mike Johnston, VP of government affairs, Michigan Manufacturers Association

“I am not surprised that manufacturing is leading the recovery. Michigan is a manufacturing state. We have been for decades. It’s not anything new. I don’t see any reason that is going to change any time soon.”

­— Mitch Bean, Director,

Michigan House Fiscal Agency

“Politicians and economists have long given up on the idea that the U.S. would be a manufacturing powerhouse. And indeed, high labor costs in the U.S. have driven a number of U.S. companies to move their production overseas. But a combination of factors has caused U.S. manufacturing to see a surprising recovery in the past year and a half.”

— Stephen Gandel, Time Inc.

“The rebounding District economy is being pulled along by its two hallmark goods industries — agriculture and, especially, manufacturing. The manufacturing output recovery has far exceeded overall output growth in both the nation and the District. Since the District’s manufacturing concentration exceeds that of the nation, this unbalanced recovery has exerted an outsized effect on the District economy. Moreover, output gains in the Seventh District have outpaced those in the U.S. manufacturing sector overall.”

— Chicago Fed Paper: “What’s Behind the Seventh District Resurgence?”

“American manufacturing is clearly at a crossroads. While manufacturing was once the lifeblood of U.S. economic growth, our country’s reduced manufacturing strength has played a role in a high unemployment rate, unsustainable federal and state spending and a massive — and growing — federal deficit. We as a country need to redefine what it means to say ‘built in the USA,’ and in so doing, reinvigorate the economic growth engine the manufacturing sector can be.”

— Andrew N. Liveris, CEO, The Dow Chemical Co., “Make It in America: The Case for Re-Inventing the Economy”

renaissance

Michigan residents — civilian and government alike — should know better than most the powerful economic forces that the manufacturing sector can unleash when healthy and unbridled.

A sampling of that magnitude’s force was once again revealed last month at Michigan’s annual Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference. Like a phoenix surging upward from a long-burning pyre, the state’s manufacturers stunned most everyone by posting a job growth rate of 6.3 percent from March 2010 to March 2011, more than double the rate of any other sector. Manufacturing has created 38 percent of all new jobs in the state and is outpacing national manufacturing growth.

Looking ahead, the House Fiscal Agency forecasts manufacturing employment to increase 5.5 percent in 2011, while non-manufacturing industries are expected to grow at a rate of just 2.2 percent.

Astounded naysayers are beginning to whisper that what we are experiencing is akin to a revival, a resurgence, a reawakening, a rebirth. Good golly, can you say…

renaissance?

While word of manufacturing’s strong showing will surely attract the attention of electioneering policymakers in all levels of government, as The Dow Chemical Co. CEO Andrew Liveris suggests, there is much more heavy lifting required to turn this revival into a full-blown renaissance.

Liveris’ analysis is echoed by new National Association of Manufacturers President and CEO Jay Timmons, who conditions a U.S. manufacturing renaissance upon swift tax, energy and regulatory changes that shrink the 18 percent cost disadvantage U.S. manufacturers currently shoulder in relation to most major global trading partners.

For the present, though, both the stretched state budget and all stressed out Michiganians stand to benefit from manufacturing’s superior job multiplier effect. For so many, simply getting back to work will spawn a personal renaissance.

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