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After weeks of articles reading of negative manufacturing news coupled with presidential candidates bemoaning the loss of jobs and manufacturing to overseas comp\anies, it is refreshing to find a positive article.  As stated in the article “U.S. factory jobs are on the rise. Sure, they’re down from where they were prior to the recession, but… Read more »

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Great article outlining the potential issue with “full-employment”.  I particularly like: “About 65% of job postings for secretaries who work for executives. But those require a college degree. Among current executive secretaries, only 19% have college degrees, according to Joseph Fuller, a Harvard Business School professor. That gap between reality and expectations has widened.” It… Read more »

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As identified by CareerBuilder’s Annual Forecast, 2016 appears to be a repeat of 2015 with 36% of polled businesses planning to hire in 2016 (which was the same percentage as in 2015).  The question remains, if the unemployment rate is already at a historically low figure, where will the additional employees come from?

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The ISM released its January report yesterday; although the PMI still has the manufacturing section in a contraction phase, the number did increase .2 points with many respondents reporting healthy to strong business activity. Based on our internal data, January was the strongest start to a year since IRG was founded in 2009. Read the… Read more »

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Based on this article, robots are going to have a major impact on manufacturing and employment sooner rather than later.

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According to the semi-annual report released by the ISM, there is good news on the horizon as the economy is expected to grow in 2016 in both manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors.  You can find the complete report here. Happy holidays!! 🙂

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The monthly manufacturing ISM report was released today detailing a contraction in the manufacturing sector for the first time in 36 months (11/2012). Interesting side note though, the overall economy grew for the 78th consecutive month and “The Employment Index” increased by 3.7%, to 51.3% from the October reading of 47.6%. So, as a whole the… Read more »

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Quick article/summary outlining what was discussed in the November 2nd manufacturing focused Presidential Candidates forum held at Vermeer Corporation in Iowa.

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Being that consumer spending accounts for roughly 70% of US economic activity, news that consumer confidence has reached a high not seen in 8 years, things are looking positive and could point to a strong finish to the year.  Read the full article here

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The labor market added nearly 200,000 jobs in August and for those of us in the manufacturing arena, the results were particularly positive with goods-producing employment adding more than double the jobs compared to July.  If this trend can sustain, it will lead to a busy end to 2015 for us manufacturing folks.