Which is pretty good growth, all things considered.
Mini-rant, feel free to ignore:
The alternative perspective which assumes total US industrial domination up to the present day (MAGA/Trump) is quite irrational considering world history: the US had almost no real industrial competition post-WW2 when all the other industrialized countries were either:
* shattered by wars in their homelands
* or completely cut-off from the rest of the world for 50 years...
So the industrial prowess of the US 1950 - 1970 (relative to the rest of the world) isn't coming back, now we're just headed for a normal equilibrium. One in which the US is still doing quite well from an industrial point of view.
Production is up, but jobs are down to about half as much as a proportion of the population, and by about a third in real terms. But then unemployment is quite low right now and there are plenty of un-filled jobs. Pay for low wage earners has seen some encouraging gains over the last few years.
It's not clear the US actually needs a huge boost in manufacturing jobs. Historically, attempts to preserve or boost jobs artificially through trade manipulations have had limited success at massively disproportionate costs. Anyway in absolute terms manufacturing jobs aren't exactly low, it's at about the same level as in 1949.
You're right of course, but it's a double-edged sword. In a sense automation made those jobs possible in the first place. At this point we've been increasing automation for hundreds of years.
Which is pretty good growth, all things considered.
Mini-rant, feel free to ignore:
The alternative perspective which assumes total US industrial domination up to the present day (MAGA/Trump) is quite irrational considering world history: the US had almost no real industrial competition post-WW2 when all the other industrialized countries were either:
* shattered by wars in their homelands
* or completely cut-off from the rest of the world for 50 years...
So the industrial prowess of the US 1950 - 1970 (relative to the rest of the world) isn't coming back, now we're just headed for a normal equilibrium. One in which the US is still doing quite well from an industrial point of view.