Services Are Exports, Too
Another place exports are coming from is New York City—in particular, the 30th floor of a Manhattan skyscraper on 5th Avenue and 52nd Street. That s where the consulting firm Kurt Solomon lies. It doesn t actually produce a product for export; it provides management advice and strategy.
“Four out of every five Americans is now employed in the service industry,” the nation s top trade official, Ron Kirk says, “Services are a significant part of our exports, and make up about a quarter of our exported goods.” These services can include everything from legal consulting, finance, information technology and even engineering.
And There Are Other Factors
So why has there been an increase of more than 30 percent for exports in almost everything? Part of the increase, at least for the manufacturing side, is due to better technology, says Tyler Cowen, an economist. “A lot of it is being driven by smart machines,” he tells Raz, “The U.S. has high wage rates, which is a disadvantage, but if machines are doing a lot of the work, that doesn t matter.”
China factors a lot in America s export economy, too. “Wages in China have been going up as the country becomes more productive. Thus China is losing the cheap labor advantage it has held for some time.” Cowen says.
Will Jobs Grow, too?
“Companies have become more productive by dismissing workers and lowering costs.” Cowen says, “So I don t view exporting as a way of creating a very large number of jobs, but it will create more profits.”
So not every business or worker is necessarily benefiting from the export boom in the U. S., and Cowen says that could ultimately lead to a polarization (两极) of economic outcomes.
Made In the USA: An Export Boom