U.S. manufacturers added workers last year for the first time since 1997, raising hopes that they can get the country’s economy moving forward.
“The locomotive is big enough to pull the economy,” said Jay Timmons, president and chief executive of the National Association of Manufacturers. “It just needs to be bigger.”
To that end, manufacturers are pushing for changes they would like to see — a lower corporate tax rate, lighter regulatory burdens and greater energy independence.
Manufacturing costs run about 18 percent higher in the U.S. than the rest of the globe, not counting labor, Timmons said on a visit to Denver on Wednesday to meet with association members.
“If you can reduce the structural costs, you will make it more attractive for manufacturers to stay here or to come back,” he said. “Give them a reason.”
Manufacturers would like to see the U.S. corporate tax rate reduced to 25 percent or lower from 40 percent, which is second-highest among developed economies after Japan, Timmons said.
Manufacturers also would like to see the research-and-development tax credit made permanent and a greater effort to protect U.S. intellectual property.
“China has to play by the rules,” Timmons said. “We need to hold them accountable.”
NAM urges passage of long-awaited free-trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, Timmons said.
And the group also is concerned that of 120 new free-trade agreements currently being negotiated globally, the U.S. is a party to only one of them.
Industrial users account for about a third of the country’s energy consumption, so policies that encourage domestic production and otherwise lower those energy costs will help, Timmons said.
The U.S. manufactures $1.6 trillion of goods, which accounts for 11.2 percent of the nation’s total GDP.
Manufacturers employ 12 million Americans directly, or about 9 percent of the labor force. In 2009, U.S. manufacturing wages averaged $74,447 a year, versus $63,122 for nonmanufacturing employees.
Colorado’s manufacturing sector accounts for about 5.6 percent of its workforce and $18 billion of the state’s economic output.
Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com
