oh and i cant wait to here the news now!   union officials filed a claim and complaint to the usBS department of fair labor bla bla bla on behalf of the 800 and some odd union employees who lost there jobs monday along with the other 1200 employees and another 3000 related areia buisnesses and contractors that merc marine made up the bulk of buisness for.  back to you BILL!    Thanks Ron.. and on to our next story , fond du lac man in a 9 hour  stand off with police remains locked in his home and he owns Guns!  The local swat team has the house serounded and half the neihborhood evacuated as the mans ex wife said he was talking about suicide.     when police showed up at the mans home the man was loading multiple guns into his truck in the attached garage and police backed off calling in the swat team as the man was muttering ..." im packing everthing up and moving up north to become a hermit! im going in the house to take a nap and if you attemt to enter my home you will all get your you know whats handed to you!  Now go away!    Its been a long stand off we will keep you updated on this story, back to  the studio and Jill.....  ok thanks bill....  oh my thats terrible... according to police the man has 6 guns regeistered in his name inclucing a fully semi auto 3030 , a fully semi auto 22cal Rifle and a fully semi auto shotgun!   more news from today , the governor after holding his fundraisor in china will now be flying to Mexico on his 13 month tour of the world working on building future relations between the state of wisconsin and potintial countrys looking to expand in the state.  More breaking news bob Record PCB levels reported in the Bay of green bay leaves officials investigating possible causes. Eagle eggs arent hatching in the aria something we havent seen for 30 years.  Local boat launches and river walks are being posted with signs saying dont eat the fish! No Swimming! and no living here homless people arent welcome.   Cash for clunkers officials say was a huge success !  and car dealers go out of buisness for lack of cash flow in an unrealated story! now for the remaining tweny 5 min of our 30 min news cast we will go to the live recorded autopsy photo's of Michael Jacksons monkey Bubbles!  wow that was a story jill,  thanks for joining us, and i wish all of you a good night and a pleasant tommorw. see you next time.

For the record I did work in manufacturing. I worked for the Ladish company in Cudahy. My time there reinforced the need to go back and get my degree. I also work side by side with many people in manufacturing in my job as an engineering academy coordinator.

You're right that it is almost impossible to outsource teaching. Our version involves Virtual education where students do everything on the computer. It had created a loss for jobs. You have your head in the sand if you think teachers have not been effected. I have seen many many young, eager and excellent teachers given pink slips and told they are being layed off.

He is also right that some countries (like India) are producing engineers eager to work for much less money than their counterparts in this country. But that is a small part of the story and you are taking way to many liberties in your analogy to react to everything on this thread.

I will not continue trying to defend my thoughts and opinions because I do not want to sabotage this thread. Man-up and/or sign your name or email me if you want to continue the conversation on a personal level.

You have a right to your opinion and I have a right to mine.

News that confuse……..

After reading the threads here one would assume that Wisconsin is unfriendly and the worst state to live in for manufacturing jobs. It would be easy to speculate that companies like Mercury are fleeing the state in droves. Yet I read newspaper articles like the ones below. These sound bites are taken from today’s business section of the Milwaukee Journal. My assumptions may be taken as flowery so I’ll let my esteemed WF friends explain the news……………….

Even though Wisconsin employers cut 114,000 jobs - the most for any July-to-July period on record - the rate of decline wasn't as bad as it was regionally or nationally.

A report Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows Wisconsin losing 3.9% of its payroll jobs since July 2008, below the 4.8% rate among seven nearby states and even lower than the 4.2% nationally for the same period.

Of neighboring states, only Iowa (3.1%) and Minnesota (3.7%) declined less. With a 6.6% drop in jobs in the last year, Michigan led them all.

"When things are this bad, Wisconsin doesn't look so bad," said Charles W. McMillion, president and chief economist for MBG Information Services, in Washington, D.C. "Compared with everybody else, you're better than most."

Wisconsin also held its spot as the nation's leading manufacturing employer, with 15.7% of its jobs in that sector. That's despite the loss of 57,800 factory jobs in Wisconsin since July 2008, a decline of 11.6%.

Manufacturers in 16 other states cut jobs at a greater rate than Wisconsin, including Indiana, which one year ago was the only state that ranked higher than Wisconsin in manufacturing density. In July 2008, 17.7% of Indiana's jobs were in manufacturing compared with 17.3% in Wisconsin.

"For years, states with a lot of manufacturing have been really hammered because of all the outsourcing and all the imports," McMillion said. Since July 1999, Wisconsin manufacturers have terminated 161,100 positions, a drop of 26.7%.

But with a weaker dollar and the sector already so low, Wisconsin might be positioned for an upturn, McMillion said.

"I would think it would have to be a strength in the future. I'm a guy that believes in the manufacturing sector," McMillion said. "It drives so much of our innovation and technology. And the fact that Wisconsin has lost so much less of its manufacturing sector than your neighbors suggests to me that your mix of manufacturing industries there is higher end and that it's got to be stronger because it hasn't lost as much."

Of the 10 states with the highest percentage of manufacturing jobs, only Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi lost jobs at a lower rate than Wisconsin in the last year.

White credited the diversity of Wisconsin's manufacturing as well as its experience at withstanding contractions.

"Lean times force manufacturers to get smarter, to stay competitive. We noticed in the '79-'83 double recession that we came out of that in better shape and hardly felt the recession of '91-'92 because manufacturers here had been through it and taken some fairly extreme steps to try to prepare for that event again," White said. "Hopefully - and we will learn more as time goes on - lessons have been learned, steps have been taken so that we will be stronger as we go forward."

Full article can be read here: http://www.jsonline.com/business/53956127.html

If you are still with me, here is another confusing report:

Wisconsin still leads in factory employment

By Joel Dresang of the Journal Sentinel

Aug. 21, 2009  

Despite losing 11.6% of its manufacturing jobs in the last year – 57,800 positions – Wisconsin remains tops among states for percentage of workers in factory jobs.

My analysis of a new Bureau of Labor Statistics report today shows Wisconsin with 15.9% of its payroll jobs in manufacturing. That’s down from 17.3% in July 2008, when Wisconsin ranked behind Indiana.

Indiana had 17.7% of its workers in manufacturing a year ago, but particularly after downsizing in the auto industry, it fell second to Wisconsin last month with 15.7% of jobs in factories.

Manufacturers in 16 other states cut jobs at a higher rate than in Wisconsin in the last year. Michigan beat everybody with a loss of 108,900 factory jobs or nearly 20%.

And now for all of that terrible outsourcing going on:

Toyota moving jobs from Japan to Alabama

The company said the move represents an investment of about $147 million and 240 new jobs in Huntsville. "Currently all engines for RAV4s made at our Woodstock, Ontario, plant come from Japan, as well as engines for Camrys built at SIA in Lafayette, Ind.," said Jim Wiseman, vice president of Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc. "We are pleased to be moving all of this production to North America. ^[1] DETROIT, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp ( 7203.T ) is investing $172 million to increase North American production of small four-cylinder engines, at a time when the U.S. market shows signs of recovering from its worst downturn in decades. Toyota said on Friday that it would spend $147 million at its Huntsville, Alabama, engine plant to more than double annual capacity there to 577,000 engines.