Economy

The operations manager at the largest nail manufacturer in the United States, Mid Continent Steel and Wire Inc., says his company has fought hard to survive in the face of unfair foreign competition over the past 12 years. The business planned for further growth and was on a great path until the Trump administration levied steel and aluminum tariffs, which took effect in June.

In the United States, the universal complaint about recruitment for manufacturing jobs is that there aren’t enough qualified candidates for all the positions that people are working feverishly to fill. So why are recruiters hobbling their own efforts by purposely limiting the candidate pools they’ll even consider?

“Nation longs for one more day with dying manufacturing sector.” That headline, published in 2014 by the satirical website The Onion, anticipated both President Donald Trump’s fears and the retorts he gets from his critics. He campaigned on a promise to bring back jobs in manufacturing after decades of decline. To people who see the future of the U.S. economy in services, these promises seemed backward. When he was head of the National Economic Council, Gary Cohn reportedly asked Trump which he would prefer: sitting in a nice air-conditioned office or standing on his feet all day. In 2018, it looks as if the president is winning the day.

A fact sheet by the National Immigration Forum focuses on immigrants in the U.S. manufacturing sector, highlighting key information about their demographics, incomes and contributions.