If you were 22-26 yo, would you move to Detroit RIGHT NOW? Why?

[canuck]

Not possible. There will never be a significant increase in manufacturing jobs in the US. Manufacturing employment is declining worldwide--China's manufacturing employment peaked in 1996. There isn't going to be less automation, and people don't need more stuff. Nor is it likely that new manufacturing facilities are going to be centered in urban cores.

People living in cities are going to need to find something else to do.

I dont know what the latest statistics are, but I remember reading that the U.S. has a slightly larger industrial sector than China's; percentage wise somewhere around 17% vs maybe 16% for China.

There is still a massive industrial sector with of course high level automation but it remains an important source of employment. Then there are business people who find ways of continuing a long tradition of high end craft in sectors like the garment trade. People will pay for higher quality goods made by hand.


http://www.ribkoff.com/index.php Montreal based fashion designer and manufacturer.

http://www.josephabboud.com/#home Boston based fashion designer.

http://www.fullumandholt.com/ Montreal manufacturer of leather accessories.

[mwilbert]

I dont know what the latest statistics are, but I remember reading that the U.S. has a slightly larger industrial sector than China's; percentage wise somewhere around 17% vs maybe 16% for China.

There is still a massive industrial sector with of course high level automation but it remains an important source of employment. Then there are business people who find ways of continuing a long tradition of high end craft in sectors like the garment trade. People will pay for higher quality goods made by hand.


http://www.ribkoff.com/index.php Montreal based fashion designer and manufacturer.

http://www.josephabboud.com/#home Boston based fashion designer.

http://www.fullumandholt.com/ Montreal manufacturer of leather accessories.

Sure, but you aren't going to see manufacturing employment overall increase. I wouldn't be surprised to see some kinds of artisan-based employment rise, but it isn't at all likely to offset the loss of mass-production industrial jobs.

Also, that doesn't mean manufacturing output has to fall. As you point out, manufacturing in the US hasn't fallen nearly as much as manufacturing employment--it hadn't really fallen at all until the financial crisis, but manufacturing employment had already fallen a great deal.