TECHNOLOGY REDUCES MANUFACTURING JOBS

Recent figures published in the Missouri Manufacturing Register reveal that while the state's manufacturing activity and employment are at record highs, industrial employment is stagnant or very slightly declining. Missouri had a decline of 156 manufacturing companies, or 1.5 percent, over 12 months, down to 9,509. During the same period, industrial jobs in Missouri dropped by 1,300 to 454,059.

"Much of that has to do with the nature of today's manufacturing," said Thomas Dubin, president of Manufacturer's News of Evanston, Ill., which publishes the register. "Thanks to automation and technology, fewer employees are needed. Instead of four low-skilled workers on an assembly line, you may now have one worker entering numerical codes into a computer that controls the manufacturing process."

This isn't a recent development, but rather is a continuation of trends that have been going on for more than 200 years since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. In the late 1700s, power looms began replacing the single, solitary weaver at work at his craft. This trend, which has been repeated in thousands of industries since then, threw a few weavers out of work temporarily but resulted in huge leaps in productivity, raising wages and living standards for all.

There might be those who wish it were otherwise. They can no more be appeased than can those who pine for the days when, 200 years ago, 97 percent of Americans were on the farm. That too was before the days when productivity advances made us need far fewer farmers, and more workers in industries that didn't exist in those bygone days. Training in computers and other high-tech advances are keys to the economy of the 21st century and to the higher paying jobs that lie ahead for those who prepare.