Don't Look to Manufacturing to Solve Job Crisis

In a very interesting article in the WSJ yesterday, David Wessel calls for some caution as everyone rejoices in the better numbers out of the manufacturing sector.

He points out that while manufacturing has added 334,000 in the past two years, that will not make up for the 2.3 million jobs it lost 4 years ago.

Labor economist, Lawrence Katz at Harvard agrees saying that ' just as we don't expect to restore agriculture as our primary source of employment, the same is true for manufacturing."

The good news is that wages for manufacturing jobs have increased 9.9% since 2001.

While these jobs require more brain power than before, Wessel explains, they won't be the "ticket to middle class for unskilled workers who haven't gone beyond high school."