"Our country's unemployment numbers will continue to rise if we do not restore strength to our manufacturing sector here in America," Nucor's John Ferriola told several hundred manufacturers this morning at
IndustryWeek's 2010 Best Plants Conference in Cleveland.
Ferriola, chief operating officer of steelmaking operations for Charlotte, N.C.-based Nucor Corp., painted a grim picture of the U.S. economy, citing statistics indicating that the number of U.S. manufacturing jobs has reached a nearly 70-year low. Those jobs are crucial to the overall economic recovery, as every manufacturing job supports an additional 5.2 jobs through the wages, infrastructure investments and taxes generated by those positions, Ferriola noted.
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John Ferriola, COO of Nucor, addresses the attendees at the IW Best Plants Conference |
Ferriola urged policymakers at all levels of government to make job creation their No. 1 priority.
"Last year's stimulus package was projected to create or save 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year. This is woefully short of what we and our country need," Ferriola asserted.
Ferriola, the keynote speaker for the opening session of Best Plants, said there are three keys to creating jobs in the United States: achieving energy independence, balancing the trade deficit and rebuilding the nation's infrastructure.
He called for a "realistic plan" to achieve energy independence, consisting of a mix of traditional energy sources and renewable sources such as wind and solar power.
(The above is an excerpt from the presentation. The entire video can be viewed
here.)
"Renewable energy sources will be an important part of the energy mix going forward, but renewable energy is only part of the solution," Ferriola said. "The reality is that right now and for decades to come, only nuclear power, natural gas and coal can provide energy on the scale required for our economy and our energy-intensive industries."
Ferriola was most outspoken about trade, and the "need to provide a stable and level playing field for manufacturing in global markets." He said the massive trade deficits with China and other nations are "destroying American manufacturing" and "crippling the American economy."
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