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Over the past several months, the Institute for Supply Management’s indices have pointed to a remarkable resurgence in the United States manufacturing economy. Its December Report on Business, released Jan. 2, was capped with the headline: “PMI at 66.2 percent: Production, new orders, employment grow; inventories decline.” ISM, an association for supply chain management professionals, had the data to back it all up. Its Purchasing Managers’ Index, a well-rounded barometer of the industrial market, ballooned to a percentage it had not reached since December 1983. Its New Orders Index outdid even that, reaching its highest level since January 1950. Its Employment Index grew for the second month in a row following 37 months of contraction.

The ISM report, which was picked up by all of the major papers, should have been the most profound piece of manufacturing news I read during that week. But, it wasn’t. A few days before the release of the ISM information, the front page of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel featured an article titled: “Out of work, seeking new land of opportunity.”

The article told the story of Lee, a 49-year-old Milwaukee native with more than 30 years of experience in the manufacturing industry.

Lee (who asked the paper to withhold his last name) is a veteran toolmaker who rose to become the director of advanced manufacturing for a Tier 1 supplier to the automotive sector. He has a first-rate resume and credentials that reach from the shop floor to conceptual design work.

Lee has it all, except a job. He was let go during a company downsizing in January 2002 and has spent the past two years sending out hundreds of resumes. With no job offers from an American manufacturing company, Lee decided to do something unconventional and perhaps a little desperate. He and his family traveled to China this winter to explore employment options in that country’s burgeoning manufacturing industry.

“I am looking at China as the land of opportunity,” he told the newspaper. “It is where I can provide my expertise. I think people would listen.”

Lee says he doesn’t know yet whether he would actually take a job in China. But the fact that someone with his background and skills is even considering such a move speaks volumes. Perhaps it says more about the trends and state of U.S. manufacturing than even those glowing ISM numbers.

This article appeared in the February/March 2004 issue of MRO Today magazine. Copyright, 2004.

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