One of the favorite recent lines by those who think that the decline in US manufacturing employment, US share of global manufacturing, US share of global exports, and so forth is not a problem, is a good thing probably, is that the declines are global and driven by improvements in productivity. Articles of this type sometimes feature glossy photos of workers operating highly automated factories and make claims about how even Chinese factories are becoming highly automated. But the global facts don't comport well with this cozy tale of inevitable innovation driven declines in manufacturing employment. The facts don't fit the effort to make those concerned about manufacturing declines out to be latter day Luddites.
If declines in manufacturing employment were driven by a trend toward automation, then we should see global manufacturing employment declining. If on the other hand the culprit is a disastrous forty years of US trade policy, then the declines in US employment should be offset elsewhere. For instance, in the last decade, if it is the outsourcing of the US industrial plant to China and Mexico that have undermined the competitiveness of the US manufacturing sector in all but a few areas, then we should see shifts in manufacturing employment rather than global declines.
The graph below shows manufacturing employment from 2003 through 2013 in the US, China, Mexico, and various other countries grouped as the "Rest of the West" (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, and United Kingdom.)
The graph rather speaks for itself. It is immediately obvious that total manufacturing employment including the USA, the Rest of the West, and China has been on the increase rather than the decline.
[An] extensive argument for balanced trade, and a program to achieve balanced trade is presented in Trading Away Our Future, by Raymond Richman, Howard Richman and Jesse Richman. “A minimum standard for ensuring that trade does benefit all is that trade should be relatively in balance.” [Balanced Trade entry]
Journal of Economic Literature:
[Trading Away Our Future] Examines the costs and benefits of U.S. trade and tax policies. Discusses why trade deficits matter; root of the trade deficit; the “ostrich” and “eagles” attitudes; how to balance trade; taxation of capital gains; the real estate tax; the corporate income tax; solving the low savings problem; how to protect one’s assets; and a program for a strong America....
Atlantic Economic Journal:
In Trading Away Our Future Richman ... advocates the immediate adoption of a set of public policy proposal designed to reduce the trade deficit and increase domestic savings.... the set of public policy proposals is a wake-up call... [February 17, 2009 review by T.H. Cate]