What's Really Hurting Manufacturing?

"The primary competitive challenge facing U.S. manufacturers and their workers," says Jerry J. Jasinowski, president of the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), is a collection of tax, employee benefit, regulatory and other "external, non-production" costs. Jasinowski's statement is based on a study by economist Jeremy A. Leonard that was released Dec. 9 by NAM and Arlington, Va.-based Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI, a business and public policy research group.

The study finds that "domestically imposed costs . . . are damaging [U.S.] manufacturing more than any foreign competitor and adding at least 22.4% to the cost of doing business from the United States."

Read the Industry Week article here, and download the NAM study here.