Ed Pruitt wants to makes manufacturing “cool” again.
But one of the biggest obstacles, according to the Long Island executive, is the misconception that the local manufacturing sector is dead. So he took on that notion Wednesday.
“We’re here, we’ve got good jobs and a great career,” said Pruitt, who this morning presided over the first meeting of a joint initiative to revitalize manufacturing on Long Island.
The Hauppauge Industrial Association and local members of the state group the Aerospace and Defense Diversification Alliance in Peacetime Transition officially launched the initiative in the meeting on Suffolk Community College’s Brentwood campus.
The group hopes to revitalize the sector through dispelling misconceptions about manufacturing on Long Island, helping local companies obtain funds to operate more efficiently and obtaining more skilled workers.
The job losses that plague the sector obscure some more positive developments such as productivity gains and growing high-tech manufacturing, said Gary Huth, the New York State Labor Department’s principal economist for Long Island. And he said even the job losses reflect in part reflect strides in productivity, which means the need for fewer workers.
The sectors is “one of the biggest sources of productivity gains” in the U.S. and the world, Huth said.
Though down from its peak of 200,000 jobs on Long Island in 1986, when the defense industry was strong, to nearly 85,000 today, Huth pointed out that the sector pays some of highest wages on the Island, averaging about $53,000 a year.
“I’m not saying it’s not a problem,” Huth said. But he stressed that distorted perceptions need to be addressed “so that more people understand there are exciting things to do in manufacturing.”
--Carrie Mason-Draffen