Made in America is hot again.
In Kent, Brian Coughren and Tom Willman have seen their business, Seattle Safety grow to 45 jobs since starting their business in 1996.
With an Small Business Association Export Working Capital Program loan guarantee, the firm completed a $2 million export order to a large car manufacturer in Germany. With another SBA Export Working Capital loan guarantee, they completed three other export orders to China valued at approximately $9 million.
They’re not the only ones scaling up for success.
Since 2010, nearly 250,000 manufacturing jobs have been added in the U.S., helping to reverse a decade-long trend where 6 million were lost.
We still have a long way to go, but we’re on the right track.
For example, last year, the SBA helped put over $2 billion in financing in the hands of small manufacturers. Through the Small Business Jobs Act, we also permanently raised the amount we can lend to small manufacturers from $4 million to $5.5 million, the highest SBA loan limit ever.
That’s good news, because small manufacturers need new facilities, equipment and, most importantly, workers, to meet the increased demand they’re seeing.
New data shows that the trade deficit has shrunk and U.S. exports reached record levels in April of $175 billion. Exports now account for about 25 percent of U.S. manufacturing jobs.
That’s good news for American manufacturing. We need to capitalize on that trend by giving small manufacturers even more tools, such as the free new resources they can find here: www.sba.gov/exportbusinessplanner
In addition, we need to drill down and find the specific areas of manufacturing that show the most promise.
For example, the president is focused on creating a 21st century manufacturing workforce.
Right now, a major problem is that there is a mismatch: There are many job openings in the manufacturing sector, but there are too few Americans trained to do the specific tasks.
That’s why the president has asked manufacturers and local community colleges to create a credential system that will put 500,000 students on a clear and direct track to a good manufacturing job when they graduate.
In addition, the President’s Jobs and Competitiveness Council – chaired by Jeff Immelt of General Electric – just announced an effort to train 10,000 new American engineers each year, so that we can keep good jobs right here in the U.S.
Another area where the Administration is focused is the manufacturing supply chain. A recent study showed that when a small supplier starts working with a larger company, the small supplier is able to create about 150 percent more jobs in just a few years.
That’s data we can’t ignore, and it’s a big reason that the Jobs Council and the SBA are working together to find more ways to support these job generators.
Overall, U.S. manufacturers are a major reason that our country has experienced 15 straight months of private sector job creation and seven straight quarters of growth.
We’re not satisfied with the pace of job growth, and more can be done. So let’s build on the success of America’s manufacturers like Seattle Safety, and let’s continue to make sure they have the tools they need to create even more jobs.
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