The Progressive Policy Institute would like to thank everyone who attended our economic policy forum on “Manufacturing in the Age of the App Economy”, which took place on Wednesday, May 2.
Michael Mandel, Jared Bernstein, Leo Hindery and Louis Uchitelle discussed the critical role manufacturing plays in today’s app-fueled economy. While there was certainly lively debate regarding the best tools and policy options available, the consensus that emerged was that the federal government must refocus and redouble its efforts to promote American manufacturing and make it more competitive. By creating a smart manufacturing agenda for the 21st century, we can add balance to our economy and put America back on the sustainable path of producers, not consumers.
An explicit jobs target is the first concrete step towards achieving that goal. PPI believes we should aim to boost manufacturing employment up to 15.5-16 million, a level last reached in 2001. The employment spillover effects of manufacturing are also significantly larger than commonly thought, so more manufacturing jobs would create more jobs elsewhere as well. With unemployment still unacceptably high, the imperative to act has rarely been more clear.
