Max Baucus: “I am just saying, we have a huge challenge here to help create jobs and to keep jobs in America and to retrain people…”

“I am just saying, we have a huge challenge here to help create jobs and to keep jobs in America and to retrain people who lose jobs. This phenomenon of job loss is huge. As the chart by the Senator from Michigan shows, we have lost about 3 million jobs since 2001; that is net loss. Those are manufacturing jobs; a net loss of 3 million manufacturing jobs in America. We have also lost a good number of service jobs, but on a net basis, not near as many service jobs lost as manufacturing jobs. Manufacturing just pays significantly more than service. I might also say, this is not just an American phenomenon. It is happening in countries worldwide. It is happening in virtually every country. The one country where it is not happening as much is Japan, interestingly. But it is happening in every other country. Why? I daresay part of the reason is due to just natural phenomena--not natural, but phenomena that are occurring worldwide, due largely to globalization, advances in technologies, communications technologies, which are forcing countries worldwide to compete even more aggressively, to cut their costs as much as they can, and producing wherever they can to get the best rate of return they possibly can. That is why it is happening worldwide, not just in America. It is happening worldwide. Part of that is because of increases in productivity. Obviously, as productivity increases, more products are produced with fewer employees per product.”