241,000ofthose manufacturing jobs have come back. Thats according to government data. For years, for years, conventional wisdom was we dont need to make stuff here. Well invent it in america and then become a servicebased economy. Well, here we are, and these new Service Sector jobs arent paying off, literally. Right now a job in the leisure and hospitality sector averages 13 an hour. Thats 27,000 a year, if you work fulltime. Retail, not much better. Average hourly rate, about 16 an hour. This is the average. It takes into account everyone from the store manager to the stock boy. Let me show you one tier higher, manufacturing. Bringing in almost 24 an hour on average. Thats a solid 50,000 a year. Thats also the Median Income for u. S. Households. Education and health services, these are important jobs for society. Workers there earn an average of 24. 28 an hour and also around 50 grand a year. Again, if you work fulltime. Then theres the very top. Those are highly educated, highly skilled and highly motivated. Census data show the top 20 making six figures, pulling in almost half of the income in the u. S. For this american recovery to work we need to have a middle, a big, prosperous happy middle. Dont you think . It has defined generations of americans. The question is how do we get there . Peter morici is a professor of International Business at the university of maryland and former director at the u. S. International trade commission and Peter Navarro is the author of death by china the and john doggett is a professor at the university of texas at austin. Professors, thanks for joining me. Lets get to school. Lets get to the lightning round. 25 seconds or less. What is your number one way right now to grow middle class jobs . Peter morici, you get to start. Develop more domestic oil and gas and address the trade balance with china. Together if we did those things wed create 5 million jobs. Both areas require skilled workered, pay high wages and use domestic materials and as a consequence we could easily grow the economy. 10 million jobs. Grow at 4 to 6 a year for the next three years. Professorial, definitely 50 seconds. John, what about you . We need to build big and heavy things that are hard to ship and expensive to ship. Theres a company calledenergex in Michigan Building wind turbine blades with composites doing a good job. Big heavy things will hire a lot of americans. Peter navarro, your turn . Lets start this week. Instead black friday, lets have red, white and blue friday, stop buying made in china stuff, tell our friends to stop buying made in china stuff. Tell the stores to start stocking made in the usa. Peter naff voe, ill stick with you on that idea. I go a little crazy this time of the year because im told the u. S. Economy is driving the u. S. Economy. 75 misof economic activity. Maybe thats not a good economic model if were sending people out with borrowed money and saving. The same people going out and shopping this past week are the same people they dont have enough money to save for college. How do we change that dynamic . High irony there. What i try to do, christine, is have people connect the dots between buying cheap made in china cheating products and the loss of their jobs, loss of our manufacturing base, the logs of our tax base, and by the way, few pennies of every dollar we spend there at the great wall of mart is going to build a very powerful military in china that is going to challenge our Pacific Fleet soon, so if we connect the dots or change our behavior. Come on, peter. We really need to make red, white and blue friday instead of black friday. You can grow america without demonizing china. China has its own National Interests and strategy. Whats ours . John, without what does america do . You know what, we have to do is stop whining and complaining and blaming china for the fact that we dont make things that americans want. If we make better products which have a higher quality, america is going to buy it. The other thing that is going on that peter doesnt talk about the prices, the wages for workers in china, the cost of doing business in china is requesting up significantly. We can now make things in america as cheaply as it can be made in china. Lets look at a. Perfect example is a. Apple could increase the price of all of its products by 5 or 10 apiece and can bring all that manufacturing from china back to the United States. Why dont they . Because right now the new ceo is trying to do that and my guess that Time Next Year there will be a lot of new manufacturing in the United States of apple approximate because apple can afford to raise the price. I think youre right. When you look, i think youre right, john, that they can afford to. I also think they have made Big Investments ore seas and the shareholders are making a fortune. Heres the thing, and im going to bring peter morici in it. John is talking about applizing American Companies and thinking like a. The issue here is when youre making everything some place else, the people who win are the people who invent those things and the people who invest in those things and the consumers who buy them cheap, its not the workers. Absolutely. You know, the real problem though is that not everybody can be an inventor and engineer, and in manufacturing, and in any area, the engineering aspect of things creates a lot of value, but it doesnt use a lot of people. You simply employ many more people making apple products than you do design is the actual iphone itself. Thats why its so valuable and creates so many profits. So if youre peter morici in the middle, education and income, youre in the middle, where do you find a job in the labor market today . Youre not one of the inventors but you have more education. You maybe have a college education. What if youre average in America Today . The trick is you cant have average anymore. Cant be someone with a liberal arts degree and expect to go out and make 155,000 a year. Have you to get some kind of specialized skill. It doesnt necessarily skill mean investing in a Fouryear College education. Does mean going to a trade or Technical School or community college, learning how to do something in the Health Care Sector or in manufacturing that requires a specialized skill. Simply, we need you need a starting point in the labor market and thats how you get it. Okay. Final thought from each of you. Can we have an american recovery, another lightning round, can we have an american recovery without manufacturing jobs, good paying manufacturing jobs, Peter Navarro . No. John doggett . No way. Peter moric sgli no, and Peter Navarro is right. Unless we address chinas cheating on the system you cant compete with them. Need a level Playing Field to create those jobs. Gentlemen, professors, thanks for spending your saturday morning outside of the classroom with us. Have a good weekend, everybody. Our pleasure. Hope you enjoyed the seminar. The television youre watching me on was probably not made anywhere near where youre sitting, but ill show you one company thats found its cheaper to assemble in the usa than in general. Just like john doggett was talking about. First, guess the answer to this question. Which percentage of u. S. Households own an hdtv . 29 , 49 , 69 or do 89 of households own an hdtv . The answer right after this. [ male announcer ] youve been years in the making. And there are many years ahead. Join the millions of members whove chosen an aarp Medicare SupplementInsurance Plan insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. Go long. In 2006 only 17 of american households owned an hdtv. They were big. They were expensive and they were rare, right . Everybody wanted one. Now guess what, 69 of you have one of them. Its because they cost less, right, and they cost less now because in part they are made overseas. Just one example, but today were taking a very hard look at the u. S. Economy and asking wheres the middle . Where is manufacturing in this country, and can we have a recovery without it . Wheres the middle in this country, hard to find frankly. Countries like china are trying to grow their middle class and are doing that by making things that the companies are selling then to our middle class and thats taking jobs from american shores and our own trade practices are to blame. Take a look at this chart. The trade deficit with china has displaced more than 2 million jobs. The stdata from a leftleaning think tank. Job losses were in computers and electronics. More than a million jobs lost in those industries over the years according epi. Other Industries Hit hard include apparel, accessories and fabricated medals, textiles and furniture and plastics and rub, Motor Vehicles and parts. Some companies are starting to see the economics of making appliances in the u. S. Makes sense to their bottom line, thats right. More efficient distribution, better work force oversight. Its turning Good Business, turning into Good Business for a company we visited in michigan. This Assembly Line in canton, michigan, is humming again. Its auto country, but workers like michael cox are building televisions, part of an industry that largely left when manufacturing jobs were outsourced in the 1970s, 80s and 90s. Lots of things went overseas. Nice to see a lot of that stuff come back. A lot of people here need a job and were willing to do just about anything to work. Element electronics has reshored an Assembly Line from asia stateside. The parts are still imported, but largescreen tvs are assembled, checked and packaged in america. As Consumers Want more largescreen tvs, it has created an opportunity to bring that production here to the United States. Mike oshaughnessy is ceo and fauner of element. Hes determined to create american jobs. You grew up in warren ohio in the 1970s and 80s like i did, you watched jobs leave, and you watched the impact of those jobs leaving on the families and friends that you had. But this isnt just sentimental. Oshaughnessy says its Good Business, and the math makes sense. We studied what our total product costs were. In particular we studies what labor does against duty and freight and other factors, and what we found is that we can produce and assemble tvs here in the United States, and we can do that for about the same cost by introducing some component in larger screen televisions, u. S. Labor, u. S. Assembly, because its offset by lower duty and lower freight. And assembling these tvs here means better Quality Control and quicker delivery to retailers like target, walmart and costco. So far element has created 100 jobs here. Across the country the number of jobs for skilled factory workers is up 38 since 2005, suggesting at least some of the millions of outsourced jobs are making a round trip, helping former autoworkers like shelby get back to work. If they close my plant, and i was out of a job for two and a half years, so it was kind of hard to find something for a while there, but thank good for here. Stuff is being made in america so thats good. Imagine losing your job at an auto facility and then out of work for two years and now putting together televisions. All right. 23 million americans are struggling to find fulltime work, but Business Leaders say they cant find enough highskilled manufacturing workers. Ill tell you why they are not looking hard enough. Thats next. Americans are always ready to work hard for a better future. Since Ameriprise Financial was founded back in 1894, theyve been committed to putting clients first. Helping generations through tough times. Good times. Never taking a bailout. There when you need them. Helping millions of americans over the centuries. The strength of a Global Financial leader. The heart of a onetoone relationship. Together for your future. A new way to save on your prescriptions. Its the aarp medicarerx saver plus plan from unitedhealthcare. With this plan, you can get copays as low as a dollar through a preferred Network Pharmacy like walgreens where youll find 8,000 convenient locations. Best of all, this plan has the lowest part d premium in the United States only 15 a month. Open enrollment ends december 7th. So call today or visit your local walgreens. I got your campbells chunky soup. Mom . Whos mom . Im the giants mascot. The giants dont have a mascot ohhh eat up new jammin jerk chicken soup has tasty pieces of chicken with rice and beans. Hmmm. For giant hunger thanks mom see ya whoaa. Oops mom . Im ok. Grandma . Hi sweetie she operates the head. [ male announcer ] campbells chunky soup. It fills you up right. To hear Corporate Executives tell it, the only Thing Holding back manufacturing in america are americans themselves. Good jobs go unfilled because American Workers dont have the skills needed to keep up with a fastpaced technologydriven factory floor. 600,000 manufacturing jobs, to be exact, according to one stud fredeloitte, are unfilled because of a skills gap. All that have would be pretty terrifying, right, if it were true. A recent report from the Boston Consulting Group says, quote, trying to hire highskilled workers at rock bottom rates is not a skills gap. The report estimates that the skills gap actually affects between 80,000 and 100,000 workers, less than 1 of the total manufacturing workforce. The coauthor of that report is also a senior and managing partner of the Boston Consulting Group and also author of the book of the manufacturing renaissance. Thanks for stopping by to talk to us about this. I hear this a lot from executives. Weve had people on this program who had people on this program who have said they just cant find the workers. You say theyre not looking hard enough. Theyre not looking hard enough, theyre not paying enough, and theyre not investing in training enough. Is that the answer . Exactly. What were seeing is companies who are not paying enough, theyre looking at highly skilled jobs, theyre trying to pay 12 or 15 an hour to. Thats not a skills gap. Theyre trying to explore, you know, using lower end work force because they want to pay less money. Thats not a skills gap. Theyre focusing on all sorts of other things. Theyre not doing training. Training san important part. A lot of companies took out training in 2008 when the economy went south and they havent put it back. You have to train your workers. You cannot just take people off the street and have manufacturing workers. For most of the jobs, it takes two or three months of apprenticeship to get them skilled and Companies Just dont want to pay that. Weve heard a lot about Companies Working with Community Colleges to try to train workers to have skilled workers. Weve talked to, for example, fedex, working with twoyear Community Colleges for machinists. They need them. Theyre working with the Community Colleges to make sure they have the right skills. Used to be unions did a lot of help with this retraining, something that was in Union Contracts with Big Companies and big manufacturers. So whose responsibility is it now . The Company Worker . The companies . Governments . The workers themselves . Its got to be the companies who have to do this. Theyre the ones who need the people. Well, individuals can do their own training and can go to Community Colleges and thats a big plus and that will help them in their employment, but Companies Need to make sure they have the skilled work force to do the jobs. That means theyll have to do it. Theyll have to build relationships with Community Colleges so they can make sure the Community Colleges are training the people for the skills that they need. By 2020, this is a fascinating statistic, you estimate that the u. S. Will have 875,000 Unfilled Positions for machinists, welders, industrial machinery mechanics and industry engineers. Thats probably because the average age of manufacturing workers is 56 years old. But then you point out just 14 of companies you surveyed are recruiting from high schools. What do american manufacturers need to do to recruit these Young Workers . Because theyre going to have a real skills gap, a real worker gap by then. Exactly. We dont see a very significant skills gap now, but by the end of the decade, its going to be very severe if manufacturers dont do things. Theyre going to have to partner with Community Colleges. Theyre going to have to go to high schools and theyre going to have to put money in training. When youve got a work force whose highest age for these skilled jobs is 56 years, were going to see a lot of retirements, so were looking at Something Like 875,000 jobs that will go unfilled if we do not start the training now. So while we dont have a skills gap right now thats severe, it will be very severe by the end of decade if we do nothing. Well, so nice to meet you. Come back again. We try to look at this as close as we can because you really cant have a comeback in america without putting the middle back in manufacturing jobs. Hal, thanks so much. Absolutely, christine. Coming up, its black friday weekend. Youre trying to score the best deal. What shouldnt you buy right now . What is this the worst time of year to buy . Toys, brand name hdtvs, watches and jewelry, or d, all of the above . The answer after the break. You can actually use. Sadly, their brothers White Christmas just got blacked out. [ brother ] but its the family party really jingles your bells, doesnt it . My gift to you the capital one venture card for any flight, any time thats double miles you can actually use how illuminating. Whats in your wallet . Let me guess, am i on the naughty list again . Ho ho ho announcer when subaru owners look in the mirror, they see more than themselves. So we celebrate our yearend with the share the love event. Get a great deal on a new subaru and 250 dollars goes to your choice of five charities. By the end of this, our fifth year, our total can reach almost 25 million dollars. Its a nice reflection on us all. Now through january 2nd. And need to get my car fixed . Progressive makes it easy, because we give you choices. You can pick where to get your car fixed, we can cut you a check, or, at our service center, we take care of everything for you. [ relaxing music playing ] [ chuckles ] whew, so many choices. Take your time. The service center. Okay. Giving you choices now, thats progressive. Call or click today. Apologies if im too late to save you from the black friday retail hike machine, but the answer to our quiz on what not to buy this weekend, d, all of the above. On toys, deal news says youll find better prices in the two weeks before christmas, so just hold out a little longer. Brand name hdtvs, you can find deals on thirdtier manufacturers, but the brand names, theyre best bought in january or february. Think super bowl time. And for jewelry and watches, deal news says theyre just as expensive now during the holidays as around valentines day. Youre better off buying those in the spring. The truth is the consumerism thrust on us during the holidays is selfdestructive. Seeing images year after year of americans tripping over themselves to buy stuff they dont need, to pay for it with plastic, isnt it a little crazy . Credit card debt is creeping higher again, up 5 per borrower in the Third Quarter from a year ago. This is where you accuse me of being the grinch. Youre a mean one mr. Grinch and some of you tell me im ebineezer scrooge. And youre right. Its easy to get sucked into the holiday hype. Shop, shop, shop. Spend, spend, spend. Use your credit, hope you can pay it off early in the year. But you know what . Theres a price to pay for chasing cheap. Weve talked a lot on this show about the loss of american jobs to inexpensive labor markets overseas. Inventing here, manufacturing there, paying lower prices for just about everything at the checkout. Its a trap the middle class has fallen into. We want the latest and the greatest, but we dont want to pay too much for it. And this is what it means for jobs. 60 of the jobs that disappeared after the 2008 financial crisis were earners right in the middle. Construction, manufacturing, office management, middle wage jobs. Since then, low wage jobs are the jobs coming back. 58 of all the jobs growth in the recovery are jobs you cant buy a house with or send a kid to college on. The middle class is hurting, and to top it all off, it faces the fiscal cliff. Many of you count on your income tax refunds to pay off this holiday debt. If we go over that cliff, taxes go up an average of 3,500 a household, that refund is going to be a lot smaller. You wont have that tax refund to pay for all the stuff you dont need right now. The encouraging news, youre not taking the warnings lightly. The National Retail federation says about 2 3 of shoppers say the fiscal cliff will affect their holiday spending. Thats good. Youve gotten the message. And it looks Like Congress may be getting the message, too. A deal to avert the fiscal cliff is looking more likely. It is. But ive been disappointed by this congress before. Millions of americans are counting on you, congress, to save their jobs and their financial futures. Do it. Well all be celebrating like scrooge on christmas morning