In his State of the Union address, President Obama spoke directly to
the need to create more high-wage jobs. “I want to speak about how we
move forward, and lay out a blueprint for an economy that’s built to
last,” he declared. “This blueprint begins with American manufacturing.”
But if Obama’s blueprint for prosperity begins with manufacturing, it can hardly end with it.
The good news is that the United States is on track to add nearly four million new blue-collar jobs between 2010 and 2020, according to projections
by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But the vast majority of these
jobs, 2.7 million, will be in construction and transportation.
