Manufacturing: a crisis alert.

America is losing the capacity to manufacture the goods it consumes and the weapons it needs.

This decline is partially reflected in U.S. manufacturing employment, which dropped from 17.3 million jobs in July 2000 to 14.5 million in September 2003--a net loss of almost 2.7 million jobs.

This weakening is also mirrored in national trade data which reveals that the U.S. will import approximately $400 billion more manufactured goods in 2003 than it exports, up from $310 billion in 2001--an increase of 29 percent.

This deterioration pervades virtually all sectors of U.S. manufacturing, including trade in high-tech goods. In 2002 alone, the United States imported $54 billion more high-tech goods than it exported, a sector where America long dominated global trade.

In recent months, many business and political leaders have attempted to alert their fellow Americans to the rapidly deteriorating position of U.S. manufacturing.

In November 2002, the Commission on the Future of the Aerospace Industry warned that although the aerospace industry had a major economic and employment impact in all 50 states, the U.S. aerospace industrial base is being rapidly hollowed out.

In June 2003, the National Association of Manufacturers issued a report "Securing America's Future" which warned,