business live

?Theres been a loss of manufacturing jobs, but thats not the same as a loss of manufacturing, said Ken Mayland, an economist with ClearView Economics who works with several manufacturing trade associations.

The U.S. manufacturing sector gradually has been transformed to focus primarily on sophisticated items that require fewer skilled workers to produce but create far greater value than the T-shirts, tennis balls and other consumer products that are mainly made overseas. Some U.S. factories also have been able to continue producing lower cost items, such as housecleaners or toothpaste, using highly automated machinery and few people.

In fact, the dollar value of the manufacturing sector’s output generally rose between 1987 and 2007, according the Bureau of Economic Analysis, even as its importance as an employer fell.

As manufacturing employment has declined, the service sector has become the chief engine of U.S. employment growth. While service sector jobs in the financial industry, real estate, law and health care provide a middle-class livelihood for many, the manufacturing sector generally has been a more lucrative option for people with lower skills or less education.

?Manufacturing still remains one of the best industries in the country in terms of wages and benefits for workers who dont have a college degree, said Robert E. Scott, senior international economist with the Economic Policy Institute.

The manufacturing sector also traditionally has provided a more promising career path for people who start on the factory floor but aspire to management, said David Wyss, chief economist with Standard & Poor’s. That’s not necessarily the case in other fields.

“You’re not going to start out as an orderly in a hospital and work your way up to chief surgeon,” he said.

Red flags
Economists and policy experts also say there is reason to be concerned that the United States is beginning to rely too much on other countries to manufacture even high-value products.

One major worry is that the United States, by ceding more and more skilled, technical manufacturing work to other countries, is slowly beginning to lose its traditional edge in research and development.

Such concerns are particularly acute in emerging areas such as cutting-edge solar technology and compact fluorescent lighting, where foreign companies arent just manufacturing products but increasingly also are doing the design and product development work.

?When you separate the production from the innovation, the innovation leaves. It goes, and it goes where the production is, said Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, which represents manufacturers and steelworkers.

The U.S. also is at risk of losing the infrastructure and suppliers that would be needed to create vital, high-tech manufacturing sectors in these hot new fields.

?There are still some industries where the U.S. manufacturing (sector) is very present and continues to have advantages, said Tim Hanley, a vice chairman at consulting firm Deloitte & Touche who specializes in industrial products. But, he adds, ?In some other industries, including some of the high-tech ones, other countries candidly have such an advantage.

The problem has been exacerbated by the fact that emerging economies such as China and India have a growing number of skilled engineers and scientists, while the U.S. has had trouble getting enough students interested in those fields.

To maintain a robust economy that includes high-value manufacturing, some say the United States needs to invest more in a better education system and scientific research.

?You cant compete in high-tech industries without an educated work force, Wyss said.

Wyss and others also say it’s worrisome that the United States has for decades been buying more from other countries than we sell to them. The U.S. trade deficit, which counts both goods and services, stood at $378.6 billion in 2009, having reached a peak of $760.4 billion in 2006.

?If youre buying stuff from overseas, youve got to sell stuff overseas. We certainly do, but I dont think you can do it entirely with services, Wyss said.

The storm led to near-record numbers of 911 calls in New York. New York City experienced the second-highest volume of 911 calls ever. It got 65,000 calls between 11 p.m. Friday and 11 p.m. Saturday, second only to the 96,000 calls made during the 2003 blackout.

While the rain tapered off south of New York on Monday morning, wind-whipped precipitation continued to fall in New England.

In Boston, workers threw up sandbags around the entrance to a subway station near Fenway Park on Monday morning as the Muddy River rose and threatened the station.

The Massachusetts Port Authority said the weather was causing some delays and cancellations at Logan International Airport and several low-lying roads and highway ramps in Massachusetts were closed.

The storm also threatened to overwhelm Boston’s wastewater system, forcing officials to begin a controlled release of untreated wastewater into Boston Harbor.

The release poses a minimal risk to public health because the sewage will be diluted by rain water, said Fred Laskey, head of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, acknowledging that it was a storm of “historic proportions.”

Some parts of Maine received as much as eight inches of rain, and utility officials blamed high winds for broken tree limbs that fell on power lines and caused outages in the eastern towns of Deer Isle and Stonington.

There also were numerous road closures in southeastern New Hampshire due to flooding.

In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie declared a state of emergency, which would allow National Guard troops to be called up if needed. In signing the declaration Sunday night, Christie said he wants to ensure local and county resources are supplemented if needed.

In Rhode Island, crews were using sand bags and granite blocks on Monday to shore up a dam in West Warwick that is at risk of breaking due to the heavy rain.

Officials were trying to decide whether to open the dam more, but that could worsen flooding downstream in Warwick and Cranston. A parking lot at a mall downstream was already under two feet of water.

Day off for kids
Schools were closed in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York on Monday.

Utility crews were making headway in restoring power. More than 140,000 residential and business electrical customers were still without power in the New York City area, and hundreds of cold, dark schools were closed. Utilities handed out dry ice to save foods from rotting in warm refrigerators.

In New Jersey, more than 100,000 customers were without service Monday, down from a peak of 235,000. In Connecticut, two major utility companies said more than 54,000 customers were still without power, down from a peak of about 85,000.

The storm, which carried wind gusts of up to 70 mph, came about two weeks after heavy snow and hurricane-force winds left more than 1 million customers in the Northeast in the dark.

“I spent most of the past few months clearing snow and ice out my driveway, sidewalks, front walks, and now we’re picking up all these branches,” Jack Alexander said Sunday as he and his family worked to clear debris from the front yard of their Egg Harbor City home. “It seems like we’ve had every type of weather event you could have this winter ? I’m almost afraid to see what else can happen.”

In Atlantic City, N.J., residents in a condominium complex and two apartment buildings were ordered to leave their homes Saturday after a crane snapped and twisted at the Revel Entertainment casino construction site, sending debris crashing through a window of a police cruiser. No one was hurt. The residents may not be able to return until Tuesday.

Hundreds of people remained out of their homes in the northern New Jersey community of Bound Brook, where flooding is common.

Among those in a shelter were the Malik family, including eldest son Norbert, who celebrated his ninth birthday Sunday. His mom said he had cried Saturday night because he was worried the storm would ruin his celebration. Instead, he said it was the best birthday he ever had.

“I got to ride in a police boat, and then a truck and a small bus,” said Norbert.

Death toll
Falling trees proved to be a deadly hazard.

A New Jersey woman was killed and three others were injured in Westport, Conn., after a tree fell on a car Saturday night during the storm, police said. Another woman died when a tree struck her as she was walking in Greenwich, Conn., they said.

In the suburb of Teaneck, N.J., two neighbors were killed by a falling tree as they headed home from a prayer service at a synagogue. In Hartsdale, N.Y., another suburb, a man was killed when a large tree crushed the roof of his car and entangled it in live wires.

A 73-year-old woman was killed by a falling tree while walking to her car in Bay Shore, N.Y. Three people tried to save the Brooklyn woman.

In New Hampshire, a large pine tree fell on a car traveling on Interstate 93 on Sunday afternoon, killing a man and injuring his wife and child, state police said.

In Lyme, Conn., a 75-year-old man drowned accidentally Sunday afternoon in a pond behind his home. And in Rhode Island, an off-duty state trooper died early Sunday after his car hydroplaned in standing water left from the storm, state police said.