Make it in America

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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.