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Edited by Belinda Yu Editor, Atlanta
Momentum in manufacturing. US manufacturing is rallying after shedding more than one million jobs in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since August 2022, manufacturers have regained roughly 1.4 million jobs, or 67,000 more jobs than were originally cut. Reshoring isn’t responsible for the rebound in manufacturing, nor is it driven by the robust industrial sectors and cities that often appear in the news. Instead, the recovery is being propelled by businesses such as craft breweries, ice cream makers, and pharmaceutical factories. [NYT]
High-tech factories. The factory in New England that makes metal parts is oddly quiet. That’s because the parts aren’t being carved out of chunks of metal but instead are being 3-D printed. Aided by billions in funding for cutting-edge technologies, executives say that the US manufacturing sector is primed for a potential renaissance. High-tech factories are transforming the country’s industrial economy and may help companies sidestep problems with securing parts from overseas. Additive manufacturing is an estimated $3.1 billion industry in North America. [Reuters]
Valuable but unfamiliar. There’s a vibrant “titanium economy” made up of companies that you’ve likely never heard of, even though they routinely outperform major stock indexes like the S&P 500. McKinsey senior partner Asutosh Padhi and coauthors Gaurav Batra and Nick Santhanam highlight 35 firms—makers of aerospace parts, color enamels, and other products—that fly under the radar and yet bring immense value to the US economy in their book, The Titanium Economy: How Industrial Technology Can Create a Better, Faster, Stronger America.
A critical sector. In the US, about 5,000 companies have spurred growth in the industrial tech sector for the past century, providing high-paying jobs, investing in employee development, and powering innovation in manufacturing. But that’s just scraping the surface of what the industry could be, says Padhi. In time, the sector could grow to two or three times what it is today, helping to create good jobs, a cleaner planet, and a more inclusive economy. Read the full interview to learn more about industrial technology, an understated but critical sector.
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