Page 6 - ARUBA TODAY

A6 U.S. NEWS
Wednesday 16 august 2017

American Living:

High-tech US plants offer jobs even as the laid-off struggle

lower-wage workers. created solid jobs while
But at the same time, increasing efficiencies for
American manufacturers manufacturers.
have actually added near- Trump continues to make
ly a million jobs in the past promises about adding
seven years. Labor statistics U.S. manufacturing jobs.
show nearly 390,000 such In blue-collar Youngstown,
jobs open. Ohio, he talked about pass-
The problem? Many of ing by big factories whose
these are not the same jobs jobs “have left Ohio” on his
that for decades sustained way to a July 25 rally, then
the working class. More told people not to sell their
and more factory jobs now homes because the jobs
demand education, tech- are “coming back. They’re
nical know-how or special- all coming back.”
ized skills. And many of the But Sen. Rob Portman, an
workers set adrift from low- Ohio Republican and a
tech factories lack such former U.S. trade represen-
qualifications. tative, conceded in an in-
Factories will need to fill 2 terview: “We’re not going
million jobs over the next to see the kind of manu-
decade, according to a facturing renaissance that
forecast by Deloitte Con- we all want in this country
In this Thursday, May 25, 2017 photo, an assembly line laborer works across from a collaborative sulting and the American unless we focus on skills
robot, right, at the Stihl Inc. manufacturing facility in Virginia Beach, Va. At the plant human work- Manufacturing Institute. training.” Labor Secretary
ers are interspersed with computers and robotics that require trained technicians to service and Workers are needed to run, Alexander Acosta, in a visit
maintain while reducing the company’s need for pursuing traditional manual laborers. operate and troubleshoot to a Detroit factory in June,
(AP Photo/John Minchillo)
computer-directed ma- acknowledged the need
By DAN SEWELL move work to its plant in The open jobs there are chinery, including robots, to address the skills gap
CHRIS S. RUGABER Mexico. among 30,000 manufactur- and to maintain complex by developing advanced
Associated Press Writers At 62, Mays is unemployed ing positions available posi- websites computing skills. And when
NORWOOD, Ohio (AP) — and wants to work, though tions open across Ohio. But Last year, software devel- Trump visited Pewaukee,
Herbie Mays is 3M proud, on the face of it he has Mays, like many of Ohio’s oper was the second-most- Wisconsin, in June, he tout-
common job advertised ed the value of training
and it shows — in the 3M plenty of opportunities: unemployed, lacks the in-
shirt he wears; in the 3M Barely 10 miles from Mays’ demand skills. by manufacturing compa- while doing. teach
“Apprenticeships
nies, behind only sales, ac-
ring he earned after three ranch-style brick home in “If you don’t keep up with
decades at the company’s this blue-collar city, GE Avi- the times,” he said, “you’re cording to data provided striving Americans the skills
by Burning Glass Technolo-
they need to operate in-
plant in suburban Cincin- ation has been expanding out of luck.”
nati; in the way he shows — and hiring. This is the paradox of Amer- gies, a company that ana- credible machines,” Trump
said. “This is not the old
lyzes labor market data.
off a card from a 3M super- In the state-of-the-art lab- ican manufacturing jobs in
visor, praising Mays as “a oratory in a World War II- 2017. Donald Trump won Yet the United States for days. This is new and com-
now remains a follower, puterized and complicat-
GREAT employee.” era building the size of 27 the presidency in great
But it’s all nostalgia. football fields, workers use measure because he not a leader, of the trend. ed.” Of the 146 million jobs
Workers in many European in the United States, only
Mays’ last day at 3M was breakthrough technology pledged to stop American
in March. Bent on cut- to build jet engines that run jobs and manufacturing and Asian countries are about 0.35 percent were
more likely to be working filled by active apprentic-
ting costs and refocusing on less fuel at higher tem- from going overseas, win-
its portfolio, the company peratures. Bright flashes ning Rust Belt votes from with robots than U.S. work- es in 2016. Filling millions of
ers, studies show. In such open jobs through appren-
decided to close the plant flare out as GE workers run Mays and other blue-collar
that made bandages, tests with a robotic arm voters. countries as Japan and ticeships would require a
substantial increase in gov-
Denmark, robotics and ad-
knee braces and other that can withstand 2,000 It’s true that many jobs
health care supplies and degrees (1,090 Celsius). have gone overseas, to vanced automation have ernment resources. q