Globalization - Looking Forward Rather than Backward

The Plain Dealer had a very interesting article on Tuesday September 7th entitled, "Technology helped kill jobs in manufacturing, says expert." It reminded me of the Industrial Revolution where productivity increased on the farms reducing the need for labor to produce the same or increasing amounts of farm products. The paper reported that the manufacturing share of total employment dropped from 26% in 1960 to 13% in 2002. Canada went from 25% to 15%, Germany from 34% to 24%, Netherlands from 29% to 14%, Sweden from 32% to 17%, the United Kingdom from 36% to 16% etc., etc., etc.

They also recognized some lesser causes as well, but what struck me the most was the rhetoric we are hearing from the media and some politicians about how we should bring manufacturing jobs back. It struck me that once again, they are looking behind us rather than forward. Eric Fisher, Research associate with the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, suggests that rather than looking backward, we should be promoting high tech services or service oriented jobs. "I would tell policy makers to encourage innovation and high-tech services."