NAM: Washington fiddles while jobs disappear

The National Association of Manufacturers criticized Congress after a recent Department of Labor report showed a heavy loss of jobs.

By Staff September 12, 2007

The National Association of Manufacturers said a grim employment report, recently released by the Department of Labor , reflects the continuing bi-partisan inability of leaders in Washington to craft sensible, pro-growth policies for the nation and eliminate impediments that ultimately cost America jobs.The Labor Department reported that the economy lost 4,000 jobs in August, as the 64,000 jobs lost in construction and manufacturing more than cancelled out the 60,000 jobs gained in the service sector. In the past three months, private sector employment growth has averaged just 71,000, its slowest pace in four years. Manufacturing lost 46,000 jobs in August.“The fact that manufacturing lost 46,000 jobs in August is not a partisan problem, not a Democrat or Republican problem, but a problem for the 46,000 families that have lost work and hope in the future,” said John Engler, president of NAM. “We need to all come together to fix this. Congress must step up to the plate, recognize the impact of decisions it has made in the past that make America less competitive, and do something about it.”“Overall manufacturing employment has fallen by 215,000 in the last 12 months, the largest 12-month drop in three years,” said NAM chief economist David Huether. “Until this month, most of the loss of manufacturing jobs was in motor vehicles or sectors closely tied to housing, but in (the) report, the decline of manufacturing jobs was more broad-based.”Jay Timmons, NAM senior vice president for policy, said the loss of manufacturing jobs is a direct result of Washington’s failure to address the external costs that make it unnecessarily expensive to create jobs.disadvantage that has helped kill more than 3 million U.S. manufacturing jobs in this decade.”