View from abroad: Envy of U.S.

Scripps Howard News Service

It may not feel so good to us still struggling to pull out completely from the 2007-2009 recession. But from a foreign perspective, our recovery, especially in manufacturing, looks pretty darn good.

In fact, the major foreign economies regard us with a touch of envy.

“The U.S. has added more net manufacturing jobs since the start of 2010 than the rest of the Group of Seven developed countries put together, with only two other economies — Germany and Canada — increasing factory employment at all,” noted the London-based Financial Times.

In fact, manufacturing has grown faster in the U.S. than in any other developed economy.

Cynics might say that this is only a sign of how bad things were, and not how good they are. “However,” said the Times, “hopes are rising that the U.S. is entering a sustained manufacturing revival.”

The U.S. is still 2 million manufacturing jobs short of pre-recession levels. Not all of those jobs may return, but the indicators are positive. The Times notes that, since the start of 2010, manufacturing employment has increased 2.9 percent in the U.S. compared with 2.4 percent in Germany and 1.9 percent in Canada.

In the other nations of the G-7, Japan, the United Kingdom, France and Italy, it has fallen. Productivity growth, a weak dollar, anemic wage increases and a strong decline in unit labor costs, while perhaps not the happiest developments domestically, strengthened the U.S.’s global competitive position.

Meanwhile, rising labor and energy costs, in traditional havens for fugitive American manufacturers, are prompting some companies to start bringing production back home or expand domestic facilities. The Times says that wages in China have been rising by 15 percent or more for most of the past eight years.

What else can we say to these companies, but welcome back. The U.S. manufacturing sector is on the mend and it’s not just us saying that.