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Industry Scorecard: Employment Data Points to a Healthy Manufacturing Economy, but High Costs Are a Headwind
/in General/by Bart TaylorThe state of US manufacturing is a mixed bag. There are plenty of positives. Total US manufacturing employment is poised to exceed 13 million workers for the first time since December 2008. (Manufacturing employment peaked in 1979, at just under 20 million.) Overall, the economy has added 800,000 or so net manufacturing jobs during President […]
How one Austin machinist is pushing back on America’s job-shop habit, one project at a time
/in General/by Bart TaylorAmerica’s precision machinists are searching for balance. On one hand, the business of contract manufacturing has become a lowest-cost, shortest lead-time proposition (read how, in space procurement). On the other hand, when provided room to operate, companies are leaning-in to engineering, to design-to-manufacture, to an operating ethos that values quality and acumen and technology and […]
Winners and losers from Oxford Economics’ report on manufacturing job growth across US metros
/in General/by Bart TaylorUS manufacturing ebbs and flows across multiple industries. For communities intent on matching economic assets with emerging opportunities, the future is bright. Sometime in April, if it hasn’t happened already, US manufacturing employment will surge past 13 million total jobs for the first time since November 2008. Back then, manufacturing was in a free fall […]
Space holds promise for small manufacturers, but modeling success is proving as challenging as the missions
/in General/by Bart TaylorHere’s how Primes and the companies that fly can make life easier for suppliers If “Prime” contractors like SpaceX and Lockheed Martin, along with companies like lunar explorer Ultimate Machines, are the public face of America’s new space economy, contract manufacturers and other suppliers to the industry are the glue. Their parts comprise the systems […]