Poll: Manufacturing Should Be Job No. 1 for Washington
August 9, 2011
A new, bipartisan national poll shows that voters want Washington to act on jobs, especially in manufacturing, which they believe will help restore America’s lost status as the world’s No.1 economy.
Commissioned by the Alliance for American Manufacturing, and conducted by the Mellman Group and Ayres, McHenry and Associates, the poll found that, by a more than two-to-one margin (67 percent to 29 percent), voters prefer that Washington focus on job creation, not deficit reduction.
Scott Paul, executive director of the AAM, says:
Voters see manufacturing as key to recovery, and though it may surprise some pundits, this is the clear message from every voting demographic, including Tea Party and Republican voters.
Key findings from the poll, conducted in Ohio, New Hampshire, California and South Carolina, include:
- Ninety percent have a favorable view of American manufacturing—up 22 points from 2010.
- Ninety-seven percent have a favorable view of U.S.-made goods—up 5 points from 2010.
- Ninety-four percent of voters say creating manufacturing jobs is either “one of the most important” things government can do or “very important.”
- Ninety percent support Buy American policies “to ensure that taxpayer-funded government projects use only U.S.-made goods and supplies wherever possible.”
One of the male Republican voters polled in South Carolina said:
Without manufacturing you don’t have that base [of support] that contributes to every aspect of life…it supports community, it supports family, provides security and …provides a bedrock we have to rely [on for} the military.
A 2010 poll by the Mellman Group showed that 62 percent believe that the U.S. is no longer the world’s strongest economy. But 85 percent of those polled believed it was still possible for the U.S. to recover its lead.
Says International President Edwin D. Hill:
Lawmakers and the White House need to listen hard to these polls and restore hope to those who are losing optimism in our nation’s future. Americans want government to prime the economic pump to help create more jobs. When government responds, like it did in the case of the U.S. auto industry, citizens of all political persuasions will look more favorably on domestically-produced goods and have more pride in our nation.
Photo used under a Creative Commons license from Flickr user ElitePete.
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