Bill Clinton Articulates the Importance of Manufactuirng
In a Bloomberg Businessweek interview former President Bill Clinton did an excellent job articulating the importance of advanced manufacturing to our economy. “It accounts for over 80 percent of our exports and 90 percent of our patents and R&D spending.” He added “Every new manufacturing job creates an additional 4.6 jobs to support it. For high-tech manufacturing jobs, the multiplier effect rises to 16 additional jobs.” And “Our nation’s 300,000 small and medium-size manufacturers, meanwhile, account for more than 50 percent of America’s total manufacturing employment and serve as a major source of technological innovations.”
He also did a great job identifying some of the challenges the sector faces… “today just 7.1 percent of all bachelor’s degrees awarded in the U.S. go to engineering majors, compared with 18.4 percent internationally.” And “The U.S. also needs to finance and support entrepreneurs to deliver new products in key sectors..”
Now through the former president’s “Clinton Global Initiative” along with the new nonprofit Made in America Organization, together with seed support from the Stiefel Family Foundation, will launch a pilot program to identify, support, and scale 10 start up companies in advanced manufacturing industries.”
That sounds like one small but solid step toward real progress.
