The main thieves who took those lost US factory jobs? Robots

[yallerdawg]

Source: AP, by Paul Wiseman

.....

Despite the Republican presidential nominee's charge that "we don't make anything anymore," manufacturing is still flourishing in America. Problem is, factories don't need as many people as they used to because machines now do so much of the work.

America has lost more than 7 million factory jobs since manufacturing employment peaked in 1979. Yet American factory production, minus raw materials and some other costs, more than doubled over the same span to $1.91 trillion last year, according to the Commerce Department, which uses 2009 dollars to adjust for inflation. That's a notch below the record set on the eve of the Great Recession in 2007. And it makes U.S. manufacturers No. 2 in the world behind China.

Trump and other critics are right that trade has claimed some American factory jobs, especially after China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 and gained easier access to the U.S. market. And industries that have relied heavily on labor - like textile and furniture manufacturing - have lost jobs and production to low-wage foreign competition. U.S. textile production, for instance, is down 46 percent since 2000. And over that time, the textile industry has shed 366,000, or 62 percent, of its jobs in the United States.

But research shows that the automation of U.S. factories is a much bigger factor than foreign trade in the loss of factory jobs. A study at Ball State University's Center for Business and Economic Research last year found that trade accounted for just 13 percent of America's lost factory jobs. The vast majority of the lost jobs - 88 percent - were taken by robots and other homegrown factors that reduce factories' need for human labor.

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Read it all at: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ROBOTS_TAKE_FACTORY_JOBS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-11-02-10-44-28

[Yavin4]

1. Just like agricultural automation destroyed farm jobs

This is the essence of capitalism. It looks for ever increasing efficiencies to accomplish routine tasks. We benefit from that with superior products and services.

Someone will point to Germany as a model, but Germans adapt to technological changes. They develop advanced manufacturing skills to keep pace and remain employed.

[safeinOhio]

5. Robots took a chunk, but

AI will wipe out twice as many..Already looking at driverless semi-trucks..How many jobs will that take?

Can't wait for that computer program that replaces CEOs.

[lpbk2713]

17. Meanwhile ...

the CEOs are looking for software that will replace the CFOs and the COOs.

And the beat goes on.

[JCMach1]

21. Driving is the #1 profession for men in USA

What then?

[Buckeye_Democrat]

6. Still waiting for the old "predicted payoffs" of this technology, such as...

... more vacation days and shorter work hours for average Americans.

[gratuitous]

18. Indeed

Where's all the labor that was supposed to be saved by these labor-saving devices?

But will robots really be able to do everything that humans do???

Okay, maybe so.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

19. Well, that would better simulate how many people talk on factory floors. LOL!

[RedRocco]

10. its looking like its time to start up the reeks and wrecks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Player_Piano_(novel)

[pampango]

15. All developed countries are becoming service economies since agriculature and manufacturing

have become so mechanized and automated that most will not be employed in those areas of the economy. There is nothing wrong with an economy in which people serve each other more or less directly as opposed to growing food or making goods for masses of people. The key is making sure that working conditions and pay are good in the service sector. Progressive countries do that. So can we.

[Taitertots]

16. 13+88=101 Where did the extra 1% come from?

This is a tale as old as time. People displaced by technological progress always bemoan the machines that make their labor superfluous. Its still a net gain for society. You need to break eggs to make an omelette.