General

As job growth has risen in industries that don’t require college degrees, high school graduates are increasingly going directly into the workforce, according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription).

The big number: “The college enrollment rate for recent U.S. high school graduates, ages 16 to 24, has declined to 62% last year from 66.2% in 2019.”

• At the same time, the unemployment rate for teenage workers fell to a 70-year low of 9.2% last month.

What’s happening: High school graduates are turning toward jobs that offer competitive wages, particularly in industries like manufacturing, without requiring a pricy degree beforehand.

• For example, machinists earn $23.32 an hour, above the national median wage of $22.26 an hour.
• “If you can get [a job] without a B.A. and with decent wage growth, why go get a B.A.?” as ZipRecruiter Chief Economist Julia Pollak put it.

Demand for training: Meanwhile, more young people are pursuing other forms of job training.

• “The number of apprentices has increased by more than 50%.”
• The changing economy has led to wider acceptance of forgoing college, as employers’ interest in hiring high school graduates has grown, according to Steve Boden, a supervisor at Maryland’s Montgomery County Public Schools.

What we’re doing: The Manufacturing Institute, the NAM’s 501(c)3 workforce development and education affiliate, has been training students so they can enter rewarding career paths that do not require degrees.

• FAME, founded by Toyota in 2010 and currently operated by the MI, is a work/study career pathway program that provides education, training and certifications for the Advanced Manufacturing Technician occupational track.
• If you are interested in understanding the FAME model of skills or what it takes to join or start a chapter, sign up for an informational session here.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

The number of ships waiting to dock at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach is growing as labor slowdowns continue, according to CNBC.

What’s going on: “On Wednesday, six vessels were delayed at the Port of Los Angeles, while two vessels at the Port of Long Beach were at anchor on arrival—unable to interface with the port operations, according to a vessel update announced by the Marine Exchange of Southern California Vessel Traffic Service, Los Angeles and Long Beach.”

• The backlogs are the result of a long-simmering labor dispute between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association—dockworkers and their employer, respectively.
• Earlier this week, the largest terminal operator at the Port of Long Beach closed for day and night shifts, following a weekend when many longshore workers did not show up for work. Scattered labor activity has resulted in operational disruptions at ports across the coast since last Friday.

The background: The ILWU and PMA have been negotiating terms of a work contract for more than a year, and dockworkers have been operating without a contract since last July.

Why it’s important: “Data from MarineTraffic shows that vessel problems are shifting from isolated to more pervasive. Over the past 2½ months, average wait times at anchorage in LA were between a half-day to 1½ days, with service time averaging of two to five days. ‘This indicates we’ve broken past the ‘normal’ and are back into a stressed maritime supply chain,’ said Capt. Adil Ashiq, head of North America for MarineTraffic.”

• The disruptions—which come as peak inventory-building season begins for shippers—could ultimately contribute to the kind of container congestion seen during the global pandemic.

Pushing for White House weigh-in: On Wednesday, NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons urged President Biden to intervene in the negotiations and cited an economic study that found even a brief, localized port closure could cost the U.S. economy nearly $500 million a day.

• “This ongoing work stoppage will exacerbate inflation and lead to dramatic economic consequences across all industrial and consumer product sectors,” wrote Timmons. “Your leadership and intervention are needed.”

Two-thirds of the U.S. is at risk of energy shortfalls this summer—and that share is only going to grow “[u]nless reliability and resilience are appropriately prioritized,” the North American Electric Reliability Corporation warned the Senate at a recent hearing, according to CBS Austin.

What’s going on: In most of the country, “there is the potential of running low on resources including electricity,” CBS reports. “The causes include an overwhelmed electric grid, the slowing use of fossil fuels like coal and natural gas to balance the use of the grid and new regulations like a lengthy permitting process that makes developing new energy take too long.”

• The NERC recently released its 2023 Summer Reliability Assessment, in which it details how, in the current push toward greater use of renewables, “the pace of change is overtaking the reliability needs of the [transmission grid] system,” NERC President and CEO James Robb told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last week.

​​​​​​​ Why it’s important: “The hearing comes as more and more Americans are expected to rely on electricity, even being rewarded by switching to electric cars,” according to CBS. “‘When electricity is unreliable, the potential consequences are catastrophic, including loss of human life,’ said Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., the committee chairperson.”

What can be done: NERC suggests a multipronged plan to shore up grid reliability. This includes:

• Better management of the “pace of change” to mix in more renewables and continued use of traditional energy;
• More natural gas infrastructure to make the grid more resilient; and
• Increased investment in energy storage technologies “and/or hydrogen production and delivery systems.”

​​​​​​​The last word: “Manufacturers rely on access to reliable and affordable energy to power their operations—so if the grid is unreliable, not only will manufacturers suffer, but American families will suffer, too,” said NAM Vice President of Energy and Resources Policy Brandon Farris.

• “The NAM supports an all-of-the-above energy approach that includes renewables, natural gas, nuclear, clean hydrogen and others, as well as efforts to shore up grid reliability.”
• “We must also continue to work on permitting reform to ensure we can build new energy projects in a timely manner and get them connected to a stable grid.”

Manufacturers are becoming increasingly concerned about the unprecedented number of unbalanced, unworkable regulations being handed down by federal agencies, according to the NAM’s Q2 2023 Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey.

• Sixty-five percent reported that if regulatory burdens were reduced, they would purchase more equipment; more than 46% said they would pay their workers more.
• Over sixty-three percent said they spend more than 2,000 hours complying with federal regulations.

Also notable: Other key conclusions from the quarterly analysis, which was conducted from May 18 to June 1, 2023, include:

• Sixty-seven percent of manufacturers reported being positive about their company’s outlook, a decrease of more than 11% since Q1 (74.7%) and the lowest in nearly three years.
• Seventy-five percent of manufacturers polled said comprehensive permitting reform would help their businesses, allowing them to hire more employees, expand their operations and/or boost wages.

Persistent challenges: As they have in the past three surveys, manufacturers this quarter again cited attracting top talent as their number-one workforce challenge (74.4%).

• The next biggest hurdles reported were a weaker U.S. economy (55.7%), rising health care or insurance costs (53.1%), an unfavorable business climate (52.1%), increased raw materials costs (50.8%) and supply chain challenges (44.9%).

The last word: “Congress and the administration have taken bold steps to support manufacturing in the United States,” NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons said.

• “But the positive effects of tax reform, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the CHIPS and Science Act are being undermined by the growing regulatory burden. The unrelenting barrage of regulations threatens to undermine manufacturers’ competitiveness. If the administration’s regulatory onslaught continues, its manufacturing agenda will fail. Unfortunately, we are seeing the signs of exactly that happening.”

House Republicans are taking the first steps toward restoring tax provisions important to manufacturers, according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription).

What’s happening: Legislators are working to get a bill through the House Ways and Means Committee, potentially as soon as this month, though it’s unlikely to ever reach President Biden’s desk. Instead, this effort might ultimately lead to bipartisan negotiations later this year.
 
What’s in it: The bill hasn’t been released yet, but we do know something about tax writers’ intentions.

• The package would “reverse three business-tax increases that took effect over the past few years, aides said. Those changes limited the deductions companies could claim for interest, research costs and capital expenses.”
• Democrats may be willing to negotiate, especially about reinstating immediate expensing for R&D, undoing a 2022 tax change that has forced companies to deduct R&D costs over a period of years and made innovation more costly.

NAM at work: The NAM has been leading the charge to restore immediate R&D expensing, to enable manufacturers to continue financing growth and make permanent a key incentive for capital equipment purchases.

What we’re saying: As NAM Managing Vice President of Tax and Domestic Economic Policy wrote this week to the House Small Business Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax and Capital Access:

• “Several harmful tax changes have gone into effect recently that make it more costly to perform research, buy machinery and finance capital investments. If not reversed, these policies will hurt manufacturers’ ability to innovate, create jobs in the United States, invest in their communities and effectively compete in the global economy.”

As part of the NAM’s advocacy campaign, the NAM recently released the Full Expensing Action Center. This action center, which is in addition to the existing R&D and interest deductibility action centers, features a tool enabling manufacturers to send customized messages directly to Congress.
 

The U.S. government and automakers are on a mission to supply the nation with better, faster charging for electric vehicles, according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription).

What’s going on: The Biden administration “is trying to spur the buildout of so-called fast chargers that can charge EVs in about 15 to 40 minutes. That’s still slower than a traditional fill-up at a gas station, but faster than the hours-long experience at public chargers … ”

• Across the U.S., labs including the National Renewable Energy Lab are coming up with designs capable of fully charging an EV in under half an hour. Some trucking firms and charger makers have piloted systems capable of charging trucks in 15-20 minutes.

The challenges: There is debate over the best way to get more people into EVs, however: is it faster chargers or more slower chargers installed “where people park … in order to make charging a car a convenient and ubiquitous experience”?

• Most current EV charging takes place at owners’ homes, typically garages or driveways where the cars can “sip” energy for hours. However, “those in multifamily housing have less access to charging.”
• The more commonly used EV charger, called level 2, will charge a battery to about 80% in four to 10 hours.

Faster charger, bigger issues: “Fast chargers require costly utility infrastructure and charging equipment; ultra-rapid charging would be even more expensive. ‘Higher power costs more,’ [Dan Bowermaster, head of electric-vehicle research at the Electric Power Research Institute] says. ‘You get to a point where for these higher power levels you’d need bigger and bigger wire. At some point the wire gets so big that not only it’s heavy, but it can’t readily bend to curve around the charging port.’”

How to solve it: Mechanical assists could lessen the cables’ weight with robotic arms, according to one fast-charging company.

• Another possible fix? A “solid-state battery in which the electrolyte that conducts the electric current is a solid, rather than a liquid as used in most batteries today.”
• Some automakers are switching to 800-volt charging systems over the more common 400-volt ones, “doubling the power that the same current would provide”—but it’s a move that will require “the highest-level charging equipment.”​​​​​​​

Washington, D.C. – The National Association of Manufacturers released its Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey for the second quarter of 2023, which reveals manufacturers’ mounting concerns over the onslaught of unbalanced federal regulations and the threat that poses to sustaining manufacturing investment, job creation and wage growth.

“Congress and the administration have taken bold steps to support manufacturing in the United States. But the positive effects of tax reform, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the CHIPS and Science Act are being undermined by the growing regulatory burden. The unrelenting barrage of regulations threatens to undermine manufacturers’ competitiveness. If the administration’s regulatory onslaught continues, its manufacturing agenda will fail. Unfortunately, we are seeing the signs of exactly that happening,” said NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons.

Currently, the NAM is engaged actively on nearly 100 regulations that have been proposed or announced by 30 different agencies.

Key Survey Findings:

• Only 67% of manufacturers are positive about their own company’s outlook. This is down from 74.7% in Q1, making it the lowest since Q3 2020, and before the pandemic, the lowest since Q3 2019.
• If the regulatory burden on manufacturers decreased, 65% of manufacturers would purchase more capital equipment, and more than 46% would increase compensation.
• More than 63% of manufacturers report spending more than 2,000 hours per year complying with federal regulations.
• If Congress were to enact comprehensive permitting reform, simplifying and speeding up the approval process for new projects, 75.1% of manufacturers say it would be helpful, allowing their company to hire more workers, expand business and/or increase wages and benefits.
• The top challenges facing manufacturers include attracting and retaining a quality workforce (74.4%), weaker domestic economy (55.7%), rising health care/insurance costs (53.1%), unfavorable business climate (52.1%), increased raw material costs (50.8%) and supply chain challenges (44.9%).

You can learn more at the NAM’s online regulatory action center here.

The NAM releases these results to the public each quarter. Further information on the survey is available here.

-NAM-

The National Association of Manufacturers is the largest manufacturing association in the United States, representing small and large manufacturers in every industrial sector and in all 50 states. Manufacturing employs nearly 13 million men and women, contributes $2.90 trillion to the U.S. economy annually and accounts for 55% of private-sector research and development. The NAM is the powerful voice of the manufacturing community and the leading advocate for a policy agenda that helps manufacturers compete in the global economy and create jobs across the United States. For more information about the NAM or to follow us on Twitter and Facebook, please visit www.nam.org

Companies are turning to seemingly unlikely sources for the lithium needed to make electric vehicles, according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription): oil-and-gas reservoirs.

What’s going on: “These oil-and-gas sites harbor not only hydrocarbons, but also brine that contains metals including sodium, calcium and some lithium. When drillers poke holes into oil-saturated formations, the brine flows back to the surface along with the molecules that end up as fuel, and companies have been prompt to discard the earthy marinade.”

• “But now that the EV battery material has become a prized commodity, lithium companies are developing technologies to remove it from this brine—and oil-and-gas companies are also taking a second look.”
• Lithium companies in the U.S. and Canada are working with oil-and-gas firms to get the metal out of old oil fields and produce it from wastewater pumps.

Skyrocketing demand: U.S. demand for lithium is expected to increase to nearly six times its current size by 2030, to $52 billion, according to Boston Consulting Group.

Why it’s important: Most lithium today comes from China, Chile and Australia, with the three countries providing around 92% of the lithium extracted globally last year. But in the U.S., the process would be more environmentally friendly.

• “Because energy companies have drilled millions of oil-and-gas wells and collected subsurface data in the process, lithium prospectors know where to look.”

A faster process: The direct extraction method could significantly speed lithium production. In it, “brine is sent to a processing unit, where chemicals, a resin or a membrane, among other technologies, are used to capture the lithium ions. The water is then reinjected into the aquifer where it originated. The process takes at most a few days, and recoveries are up to 90%.”

• Some are hoping direct extraction will allow lithium producers to get the metal in the Permian basin of West Texas and New Mexico.

UL Solutions broke ground on its North America Advanced Battery Laboratory in Auburn Hills, Michigan, yesterday—with the NAM in attendance! The new facility will offer testing and certification for EVs and industrial batteries, a crucial step in establishing EV-ecosystem hubs.

A Charlotte, North Carolina–based company that started life as a paper mill is now the world’s largest lithium producer—and “a key cog in a tight global supply chain for battery metals used in electric cars, smartphones and other applications at a time when governments are pushing to electrify their economies,” according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription).

What’s going on: Albemarle is one of the few companies that can produce lithium at a competitive cost, thanks in large part to its 2015 purchase of a lithium producer in New Jersey.

• The global lithium market has grown an enormous 2,900% since that purchase, to $48 billion from $1.6 billion.
• To keep up with demand, “Albemarle has embarked on new acquisitions and capacity building,” including an ongoing bid to purchase Australian lithium miner Liontown Resources.
• Last month, Albemarle—which also mines lithium at operations in Nevada and Chile—announced plans to double the capacity of a lithium hydroxide plant in Western Australia in which it has an 85% stake.
• Lithium is also used in “industrial-scale batteries that can store energy from solar panels and wind farms and smaller ones for residential use.”

Competing with China: The company’s “integrated approach has put it at the center of Western efforts to diversify supply lines” to counter China’s dominance in the electric-vehicle market.

• “China has emerged as a global leader in EV production and is spending billions to boost its access to lithium-mine production globally. Meanwhile, it dominates the business of refining lithium extracted elsewhere in the world. The West is trying to catch up.”

What’s next: Last fall, the Department of Energy gave Albermarle a grant of nearly $150 million to produce EV batteries.

• In March, the company said it would spend more than $1.3 billion on a lithium-processing plant in South Carolina.