The Toronto Globe and Mail has a new look and a new journalistic project, “Time to Lead,” calling for a re-evaluation of the country’s institutions and self-conception. As journalism goes, it’s a worthwhile Canadian initiative.

Today’s contribution to the series is an outstanding column from a veteran Canadian editor and columnist, Neil Reynolds, on manufacturing in the United States. From “There are no ‘lost’ jobs, just lost opportunity“:

The real U.S. unemployment rate exceeds 15 per cent of the labour force – and U.S. manufacturers have eliminated another two million jobs since 2007. Yes, the economy as a whole dropped eight million jobs, but the decline in factory jobs has become a lament for a nation expressed by the nostalgic assertion that Americans “can’t make things any more.”

This is a defamatory lament. It incites further populism and further protectionism – and further delusion. It is, simply, wrong. The American factory worker leads the world in “making things.” The problem is not production. It is perception. U.S. manufacturers mostly make high-technology “things” that aren’t sold from store shelves – advanced computer electronics, for example, and sophisticated aerospace products. (The biggest losers in manufacturing: textile mills and clothing.) The fact is that the United States remains the No. 1 manufacturing economy in the world by a wide margin. The average American factory worker is more than twice as productive as the average worker in the next 10 leading manufacturing countries. The U.S. produces 22 per cent of the world’s manufactured goods – compared with Japan’s 13 per cent and China’s 12 per cent.

Reynolds cites the National Association of Manufacturers’ “2010 Labor Day Report” to identify government interference and protection as restraints on U.S. manufacturing resurgence. As the NAM report notes, more aggressive countries — including Canada and those of the European Union have negotiated and signed trade agreements that open up their markets to one another’s exports.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government pursues a disastrous strategy at home: treating manufacturers as people who can’t make things, compelling them to produce only the “right” politically correct products and imposing yet higher corporate tax rates.

August unemployment figures will be released Friday, with the expected 9.5 or 9.6 percent national jobless rate punctuating the importance of jobs and the economy just in time for the Labor Day holiday. Yet, in attempting to shape the Labor Day news coverage, the Obama Administration is promoting its successes (such as they are) in having government direct economic activity, while organized labor is just calling for more political activism.

They’re both missing the mark: What’s needed to encourage jobs growth are policies that make the United States more globally competitive while ending the uncertainty that keeps employers from hiring more workers. The NAM’s recent “Manufacturing Strategy for Jobs and a Competitive America” laid out those necessary policies, and our new “Labor Day 2010” report put them in context of employment and the economy. These are substantive documents, if we do say so ourselves.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis issued a statement via video that talks about jobs, but mostly offers examples of government intervention rather than a clear strategy for job creation. The statement will be even more underwhelming when the Bureau of Labor statistics announces the unemployment tomorrow.

Meanwhile, labor leaders are using the week to issue a political call to action, urging union members to mobilize in advance of the midterm elections. Union bosses are rightfully nervous that their allies in Washington  – those who have embraced labor’s anti-competitive program — are facing serious threats to their re-elections. Materials distributed by the AFL-CIO again make vague statements of support for anti-worker proposals like the Employee Free Choice Act.

We hope that all policymakers and candidates take the opportunity this Labor Day weekend to not only read the NAM’s Labor Day Report but also declare their opposition to card check legislation in any form. For jobs and the American worker, it’s time to focus on competitiveness, not proposals that would only worsen employer-employee relations.

The Manufacturing Institute, in partnership with Deloitte, today published the 2nd annual survey of the American public’s opinions on the manufacturing industry and its future. View the press release here. The 2010 Public Viewpoint on Manufacturing survey reveals that Americans have a strong, positive view of the significance of manufacturing in the United States, but lack faith in the government policies that will keep it strong in the future. The 55 percent of respondents who think the long-term outlook for manufacturing is weaker than today – compared to the 78 percent who see manufacturing as vital to the country’s economic prosperity – may explain why Americans are not encouraged to go into manufacturing.

There is no denying, however, that Americans want to see the U.S. as the world’s greatest manufacturer, and the 18.6 million jobs supported by manufacturing stay here on American soil. They believe that U.S. workers have what it takes to compete, identifying the attributes of a workforce, including work ethic, skills, and productivity, as the top three most important components that could contribute to creating competitive advantage.

However, as companies still report skills shortages in production workers, scientists, and engineers, U.S. manufacturing is at a tipping point. Unless we deploy policies and programs, such as the Manufacturing Skills Certification System to attract, educate and credential our talent pool, American manufacturers will lose our competitive advantage. For more information, contact jwilkins@nam.org or 202-637-3493.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, which diligently covers manufacturing and Wisconsin industry, today reports on the latest Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing report and the condition of the state’s manufacturers in “U.S. manufacturing strengthened in August.”  

ISM’s manufacturing index rose to 56.3 percent in August, up from 55.5 in July, and manufacturing has expanded for 13 straight months, indications that a “double-dip” recession is unlikely. Still, mixed signals.

Business has not rebounded to pre-recession peaks, but it’s much better than it was in 2009, said Dave Sucharski, general manager of Miro Tool & Manufacturing Inc., in Waukesha.

“Right now, all of the sectors of our company are busy,” he said. “The only downside is that orders are coming in with very short lead times.” To conserve cash, “customers are ordering things just when they need them,” he said, “and sometimes later than that.”

JS reporter Rick Barrett also notes points raised in the NAM’s Labor Day Report for 2010, released Wednesday.

“We have had four consecutive quarters of economic growth, but much of the increase was temporary in nature,” said David Huether, chief economist for the National Association of Manufacturers.

“More than half of the upturn in the economy over the past year was from business restocking inventories. Now, with inventory-to-sales ratios back to reasonable levels, this source of growth will likely fade,” Huether said.

The NAM’s Labor Day report is available at http://bit.ly/LaborDayReport .

The ISM index — available here – rose by an unexpected amount, which sparked probably too enthusiastic of reports about the economy, e.g., the Wall Street Journal blog entry, “Surprising Many, Manufacturing Is Bright Spot.” Congress is back soon, and could easily tarnish that brightness.

As NAM President John Engler wrote in the introduction to the Labor Day report:

Any serious Labor Day analysis of the U.S. economy and employment must address the uncertainty factor. Costly tax and regulatory proposals enacted or being considered by Congress and the Obama Administration make employers apprehensive, investors cautious and consumers anxious. Policies that expand government, taxes and regulations also pose serious questions about the ability of business in the United States to compete in the global marketplace. The predictable result is a faltering recovery and troubling times for U.S. workers.