Politics in Haiti > Forum

Manufacturing Revival In The US

Bernadette - May 30 2012, 10:17 PM

Sluggish wage growth is boosting the manufacturing recovery.

"The celebrated revival of U.S. manufacturing employment has been accompanied by a less-lauded fact: Wages for many manufacturing workers aren't keeping up with inflation.

The wage lag is a key factor contributing to the rebounding competitiveness of U.S. industry.

A recent uptick in factory employment and the return of some production to U.S. shores from abroad both added jobs that probably otherwise wouldn't exist.

But sluggish wages also are squeezing workers' incomes and spending.

That, in turn, hurts retailers who target middle-income earners and restrains the vigor of the economic recovery...Across the country, earnings for production and other nonsupervisory workers in manufacturing averaged $19.15 an hour in April, 3.2% below their recent March 2009 peak and back to where they were in 2000, adjusted for inflation, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says." David Wessel and James Hagerty in The Wall Street Journal.

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