That’s true enough. So what about the long term – is it time to boost manufacturing? High-tech manufacturing is fashionable, but it is unlikely to drive much economic growth because the sector is too small. Nor is it a source of jobs: as Mr Summers pointed out, even China seems to have been shedding manufacturing jobs over the last couple of decades. Perhaps the data deceive here, but the Chinese manufacturing boom seems to be more about increasing output per worker than employing more workers. If the Chinese can’t generate jobs through manufacturing I am not sure we should be expecting too much from that strategy.
— tim harford, you’re just great.
