By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
According to the Creighton University Business Conditions Index, the manufacturing economy in the Midwest is struggling.
"Manufacturing is moving sideways to a bit down," said economist Ernie Goss. "Job losses, again, for the U.S., 90,000 jobs in manufacturing were lost this year. For the region, of course, a much smaller number. In fact, close to even, about 2,000 jobs in manufacturing were lost in this part of the country."
Goss also sees potential headwinds on the horizon if the delayed longshoremen's strike rekindles next month.
"January the 15th, we'll see the 17 East Coast and Gulf Coast ports maybe shut down," Goss said. "We'll just see. The real distressing part of that is they're negotiating for higher wages, and I salute that, but they're also attempting to implement throwing out automation. They don't want to have their jobs replaced with automation."
Goss sees that as fundamentally counterproductive in the long run.
"All of us, our wages depend highly on increasing productivity," Goss said. "If you're in an industry where productivity's not going to grow, then you're probably not going to get the wage increases you would expect unless you get protection from the government."
The question is just how protectionist will the incoming Trump administration turn out to be, and how much is negotiation for the best deal, but will ultimately be backed off of as a practical matter come January.