Another 200,000 manufacturing jobs down the drain

This hit my inbox this afternoon from the Alliance for American Manufacturing after the Commerce Dept. jobs report of this morning:

According to the latest figures from the Commerce Department, the United States lost another 31,000 manufacturing jobs in December in addition to the 13,000 lost in November. For the year 2007, the United States lost 212,000 manufacturing jobs. Seasonally adjusted U.S. manufacturing employment now stands at 13.919 million. 2007 also marks the first year that U.S. manufacturing employment has fallen below 14 million since 1950.

“The real shame in the continuing decline of U.S. manufacturing employment is that these are good-paying jobs that can't really be replaced,” said Scott Paul, director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a partnership of leading U.S. manufacturers and their unions. “Manufacturing jobs contribute much more to the economy than service sector jobs. Congress and the Administration must take clear action to strengthen American manufacturing and enforce existing U.S. trade laws. Otherwise, more U.S. factories struggling to compete against illegal, subsidized competition from overseas will close and more American workers will lose their jobs.”