Yet strength of ISM index might be overstated, some say
U.S. manufacturers are still expanding at a rapid pace, unlike most foreign rivals.
Manufacturers in the U.S. barely slowed down in November even as major competitors around the world continued to scale back production. Read more
Ford Adding 850 New Jobs To Build 2015 F-150. Ford announced today it will add 850 new jobs in Dearborn to build the all-new 2015 F-150 pickup that is the automaker’s most advanced pickup in 66 years.
The new hires will be sprinkled among the various facilities that make up the Ford Rouge Center in Dearborn. About 500 of the jobs will be at the Dearborn Truck Plant that assembles the pickup with three crews rotating over two shifts each day. Nearly 300 workers are for Dearborn Stamping and more than 50 will work at Dearborn Diversified, which also does stamping.
Ford is not taking new applications. The automaker has identified the new hires from its large pile of applications, and some have already begun training. All will be clocking in over the next couple months.
“This is one of the proudest moments I have had in my life,” said Jimmy Settles, head of the Ford department of the UAW, and a third-generation Rouge complex worker.
The $2 billion spent to revitalize the Rouge complex that consists of five plants makes it possible to do things never before done in the auto industry, said Bruce Hettle, vice president of North America manufacturing, at an event this morning announcing the additional employees.
- About 500 of the jobs will be at the Dearborn Truck Plant that assembles the pickup on three shifts. Nearly 300 workers are for Dearborn Stamping and more than 50 will work at Dearborn Diversified which also does stamping.
The Dearborn Truck Plant just finished gutting and rebuilding its body shop to make the 2015 model with an aluminum body instead of the steel bodies used since 1948. Pre-production models are running through the body shop now and are scheduled to run down the full line starting Oct. 20, but that date might be moved up to this week.
The carefully orchestrated launch is on track, said Joe Hinrichs, Ford president of the Americas. Production vehicles will start “in a matter of weeks,” but Hinrichs would not say when Job One will be. Trucks will start arriving in showrooms by the end of the year.
The plant runs with three crews but more workers are needed because this next-generation pickup has more features and technology. And building a body from aluminum instead of steel requires all new processes — such as adhesives instead of welding — as well as new manufacturing equipment.
Additionally, some of the stamping work has been brought to the complex, work that had been done by suppliers or other Ford facilities, said Bernie Ricke, president of UAW Local 600, who is pleased with the additional jobs.
Ford has pledged to quickly get production up to full speed because of the sheer volume and importance of the truck. Ford sold 763,400 F-Series last year and analyst Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley estimates Ford’s trucks generate more than 90% of the automaker’s global auto profits.
Ford built up its inventory of outgoing 2014 models to bridge the gap until there are enough 2015 models to satisfy dealers. That will take a while because just as Dearborn Truck hits its production stride, the Kansas City plant in Claycomo, Mo., will go down for six weeks in the first quarter of 2015 to rebuild its body shop to switch to the new truck.
Jonas has written a number of reports expressing concern about the impact of the changeover on Ford’s profitability, but Hinrichs said today the launch is going according to plan, processes are being validated and people are being trained. In the end, Wall Street will be won over by the vehicle itself, he said of the truck that sheds 700 pounds, which will improve its fuel economy.
As part of the national contract negotiated with the UAW in 2011, Ford pledged to create 12,000 hourly jobs in the U.S. by 2015. The automaker has already exceeded that commitment: Last month’s announcement of a second shift of 1,200 workers at the Kansas City plant to make the Transit commercial van brought the total to more than 14,000. More than 3,000 have been added in 2014. Factoring in salaried workers as well, Ford has hired more than 23,000 employees since 2011.
The signs of health are not going unnoticed by the UAW, which has a new contract to negotiate next year.
“It’s always nicer negotiating with a company making lots of money than a company in distress,” Ricke said. Priorities for a new contract in 2015 include economic gains, looking after retirees and continued investment in jobs, he said.
“Ford’s announcement is more positive news for the citizens of Michigan and a further sign of the comeback of Michigan, manufacturing and the auto industry,” said Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder in a release.
Ford will have added almost 5,000 jobs in southeastern Michigan since 2011 including:
■ 850 at Ford Rouge Center including the Dearborn Truck Plant
■ 1,800 at Michigan Assembly Plant
■ 1,700 at Flat Rock Assembly Plant
■ 250 at Rawsonville Plant
■ 240 at Van Dyke Transmission Plant
■ 150 at Livonia Transmission Plant
Jobs are slowly making their way back into the U.S.A. Do you see this happening in your area? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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Elon Musk, co-founder and CEO of American electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors.
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Tesla finds home in Nevada! Gov. Brian Sandoval announced Thursday that Nevada won a high-stakes battle with four other states for Tesla Motors’ coveted battery factory, but the win comes with a hefty price tag — up to $1.3 billion in tax breaks and other incentives over 20 years that state lawmakers still must approve.
An “Assembled in the USA” stamp is seen at the side of a box containing a 32-inch television set in the warehouse of Element Electronics, in Winnsboro, South Carolina. Element’s 315,000-square-foot plant in South Carolina has six assembly lines making 32- and 40-inch TVs that are now available in all of Walmart’s more than 4,000 U.S. Stores. REUTERS/Chris Keane
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The U.S. News/Raytheon STEM Index shows that STEM employment in the United States has gone up by more than 30 percent, from 12.8 million STEM jobs (as defined by the U.S. government) in 2000 to 16.8 million in 2013, and a February report by Burning Glass Technologies indicated the STEM job market is actually far larger than that. Kelly also points out that the analytical reasoning and problem-solving skills associated with science, technology, engineering and mathematics are increasingly important for jobs that aren’t traditionally defined as being in STEM fields.
“People are measuring the number of Ph. D. engineers and scientists out there, but the mechanics putting the wings on the airplanes need STEM skill sets, too,” he says. “This is not simply an issue about guys with lab coats and pocket protectors. This is way beyond that.”
Launched with support from the Raytheon Company, the new U.S. News/Raytheon STEM Index measures annual changes in key indicators of STEM activity in the United States relative to the year 2000; it is not a comprehensive measure of all STEM economic or STEM education activity in the United States and does not determine whether explicit STEM goals are being met. The Index is made up of 93 sub-indices and thousands of data points divided into eight components: ACT math and science scores, Advance Placement (AP) test scores in STEM subjects, college and graduate degrees granted, U.S. employment in STEM fields, Program for International Student Assessments (PISA) math and science scores, SAT math scores, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) math scores and interest in STEM at the high school level. It relies on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the National Center for Education Statistics, the College Board, the National Research Center for Colleges & University Admissions, the ACT and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
As with other widely followed indices like the S&P 500 or the Consumer Price Index, the weights and components for future U.S News/Raytheon STEM Indices will likely change as more numerous and refined indicators become available. “For instance, we know that the way the federal government classifies STEM jobs undercounts them, possibly by a lot,” Kelly explains.
“Science, technology, engineering and math form the foundation of the global economy,” says Raytheon Chairman William Swanson. “Yet, as the STEM Index suggests, if educational trends continue, fewer qualified candidates will be available to support growth in these areas. It’s critical to our business and the United States’ long term economic outlook that we inspire young people to engage in STEM and dedicate resources to supporting them throughout their academic lives.”
Even with the most weight given to the broadest indicators — STEM employment and STEM degrees granted — the Index shows there has been only modest gains in overall STEM activity since 2000.
The component index for AP tests offers one such example. “In 2000, around 423,000 STEM AP tests were taken,” Morse explains. “In 2013, that number ballooned to 1.2 million. This shows us that despite our graph looking like AP STEM is in a major downslide, in reality there has been real growth in numbers. This is an indication of the rapidly growing popularity of all AP tests in general and that the growth in STEM AP tests is not keeping pace.”
Still, the relatively flat overall Index calls into question the effectiveness of multiple plans to increase STEM awareness and activity in the U.S., including President Barack Obama’s 2009 Educate to Innovate initiative. While the actual number of STEM degrees granted, employment in STEM fields, and the number of STEM-related AP tests have gone up since 2009, other indicators — like SAT and NAEP scores — have stagnated, and other key areas have declined.
“There’s not much evidence so far that government actions have had a significant effect,” Kelly says, stressing that some initiatives, like the Common Core State Standards, which were created in part to address the national STEM education crisis, have not been yet fully implemented.
According to the U.S. News/Raytheon STEM Index, high school student interest in STEM fields reached a low point in 2004, dropping nearly 19 percent from the base-year calculations. Interest levels climbed steadily until 2009, when they began to decline again. In spite of the intense drive to encourage students to study science, interest levels fell between 2009 and 2013 and are now just slightly below where they were in 2000.
The lack of progress among female and minority students is especially troubling in the long term.
“A big part of the problem is the continuing split that puts Asian-Americans and white males on the side of those who are driven to acquire STEM skills, and women, blacks and Latinos on the other side of the dividing line” says Kelly. “T
he labor pool going forward will not be made up mainly of white males and Asian-Americans. The labor pool will be increasingly Latino, and that group is not advancing in STEM fields right now.”
As high school students’ interest in STEM has waned, their scores on international assessments like PISA have dropped, the U.S. News/Raytheon STEM Index shows. According to the latest PISA data, released in December, students in other countries continue to outperform those from the United States in math and science.
“The big picture of U.S. performance on the 2012 PISA is straightforward and stark. It is the picture of educational stagnation,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said at the time. “In a knowledge-based, global economy, where education is more important than ever before, both to individual success and collective prosperity, our students are basically losing ground.”
But Kelly cautions that the issue is more complicated than just “us vs. them.” While international assessments like PISA show the U.S. is falling behind, other data used in the U.S. News/Raytheon STEM Index, like NAEP scores, show an improvement over time.
“Even with gains domestically, we can still be losing ground against our international competitors,” Kelly explains.
“There are many very good initiatives and lots of work being done to address the problem,” he continues. “But as the data show, it’s still not enough. There is a mismatch of skills and jobs, of supply and demand, and the challenge is to get them aligned again.”
While labor and energy costs aren’t the only factors that influence corporate decisions on where to locate manufacturing, these striking changes represent a significant shift in the economics of global manufacturing.
China displaced the United States as the largest manufacturing country in 2010, as the United States’ share of global manufacturing activity declined from 30% in 2002 to 17.4% in 2012.
