Dubbed rust-belt for its decaying
manufacturing facades and population stagnation in the 1980s, the northeastern
and east-north central states faced an economic crisis in the 1980s that can
still be seen in stirring effects across the region, particularly in cities
like Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Allegheny County itself lost more than
half of its population from the 1950s to the 1990s.
With the
push to re-shore lost manufacturing jobs from the 1980s, its clear that most of
the stereotypical manufacturing jobs will never return. But due to significant
advances in shale-gas extraction, water technology, and robotics, advanced
manufacturing is overtaking this once old-industrial string of cities –
retaking long-vacant manufacturing facilities and fueling the coming of
Next-Shorting.
As these technologies become more
targeted in certain regions across the country, specific supply-chain matrixes
develop and feed off of one another. The loss of industrial production in the
Rust-Belt has been replaced by additive manufacturing and new-technology
production in the Tech-Belt, remaking the economics of regions that lost
thousands of jobs and skilled labor. Without the supply of specific assets,
including young, technology-focused workers and the abundance of natural gas,
and water-rich resources in rivers and the Great Lakes, this resurgence
wouldn’t be possible. Location as discussed in the Next-Shoring article, coupled
with rising energy costs, a focus on local demand and a culture of innovation
put this region at the center of the new Next-Shoring movement.
Organizations
like National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute in Youngstown, Ohio,
and the TechBelt Initiative focus these efforts in a regional fashion, bringing
more federal funding opportunities, spurring these growth opportunities even
further. Location is an important focus for these organizations, and the
understanding that, for example, shale-gas can be extracted, engineered and
supplied all within a hundred mile radius.
This manufacturing resurgence leads
to real-estate and development deals that bring with it highly-skilled
manufacturing jobs for the future, leading to increased economic growth and
higher wages. This type of strategic placement of manufacturing facilities are
coupled with the abundance of graduates, more and more being trained for jobs
in these growing industries, or building their own companies and products
through innovative spin-out programs and availability of new training
organizations, like TechShop.
With so
many regions across the country focusing on new, innovative and technology
focused industry, the biggest supply issue is workforce. Will the supply of
skilled workforce ever meet demand? What do these jobs look like and can
education be fully molded to fit the needs of this ever changing and dynamic
sector?
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