Bush should use Valley as his manufacturing lab

The numbers are chilling: Of the 2.8 million jobs the U.S. economy has lost since early 2001, 2.4 million were in manufacturing; more than one in 10 of the nation's factory jobs have been eliminated since the current recession began; two-thirds of the 185,000 jobs Ohio lost from 2001 through March were in manufacturing. Economic growth should add 1 million new jobs in the second half of 2003 and an additional 2.5 million in 2004, but most of those will not be in manufacturing.
"The distortion in exchange rates internationally and its impact on manufacturers' inability to compete fairly and at decent prices is probably the No. 1 cause of manufacturing unemployment," says Jerry Jasinowski, president of the National Association of Manufacturers.
Little wonder, therefore, that President Bush spent Labor Day promising to address the crisis in the nation's manufacturing industry. Bush came to Ohio Monday and announced that he is creating a position in the commerce department: assistant secretary for manufacturing. The goal, the Republican president told hundreds of supporters in Republican friendly Richfield, is to focus "on the needs of manufacturers."
Skepticism
Not surprisingly, the announcement was met with skepticism from Democrats, including union members who have experienced first-hand the effects of this nation's manufacturing decline.
It's now up to Bush to prove that the new assistant secretary isn't political window dressing. Voters, especially those who have lost their factory jobs, will be unforgiving if they believe the White House isn't serious about addressing unemployment.
While the administration has begun to look at the issue of misaligned global exchange rates -- NAM says China's currency is 30 percent to 40 percent undervalued, making American products prohibitively expensive in that country -- the loss of manufacturing jobs requires a major initiative.
In that regard, we would suggest that the administration first study the Mahoning Valley to find out what happens to a region when its basic industry collapses. The Valley was once one of the leading steel producers in the world, but in the 1970s, largely as a result of federal policies and absentee corporate decision-makers, plants began to close. In the end, thousands of Valley residents who had deep roots in steel were rendered jobless.
And two decades later, the pain of this economic dislocation remains.
Three months ago, The Vindicator published a report, "Jobs in the Mahoning Valley." Here's one fact from that report that would open the eyes of the president if he selected the region as his manufacturing laboratory: "Valley companies have cut more than 18,000 manufacturing jobs since 1997. In the first three months of this year, the Valley averaged 40,600 manufacturing jobs, down nearly one-third from six years ago."
Reality
Superimpose those statistics with this reality: There are a lot of jobs at the high end, requiring specific qualifications and training, and a lot of jobs at the low end, paying minimum wage. There aren't a lot of jobs in the middle -- the kind once plentiful in the steel mills, or at General Motors and Packard Electric, which employed a combined 16,300 hourly workers in 1998 and now have 11,600.
The steel industry in the Valley is also struggling. CSC Ltd., a Warren mill, closed in 2001, eliminating 1,300 jobs. WCI Steel, also in Warren, is in a fight to stave off bankruptcy and save its 1,800 jobs.
Nowhere in the country is the decline of manufacturing more evident than in the Mahoning Valley, which is why the region should be high on the new assistant secretary's travel itinerary. Indeed, a visit by the president would be timely.