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America’s Advanced Industries
Report

America’s Advanced Industries

What They Are, Where They Are, and Why They Matter

Mark Muro, Jonathan Rothwell, Scott Andes, Kenan Fikri and Siddharth Kulkarni
Brookings Institution, 2015
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Editorial Rating

8

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  • Innovative

Recommendation

In developed countries, maintaining well-paying jobs depends on delivering high productivity to offset low wage costs in developing countries. “Advanced industries,” which have a level of innovation and technology that demands highly productive workers, are the keystone of economic health in high-cost countries. The United States has ceded its leadership in advanced industries to other developed nations since the 1990s, when it began moving lower-value activities offshore, eroding the industrial clusters that support America’s supply of highly skilled workers. Brookings Institution researchers Mark Muro, Jonathan Rothwell, Scott Andes, Kenan Fikri and Siddharth Kulkarni offer a thoughtful analysis of advanced industries and suggest ways that the United States can regain its competitiveness and support good jobs. Their text offers basic principles and shows strong, practical examples of worthwhile local initiatives that develop and enhance high-tech clusters and improve the supply of appropriately skilled workers. getAbstract recommends this focused, accessible overview of America’s most valuable industries to business executives, investors, policy makers and entrepreneurs.

Summary

“Advanced Industries”

Job and wage growth in the United States remains lackluster, though it has new technologies that boost jobs and spawn a wealth of novel products and services. The advanced industries sector offers income opportunities and has created two-thirds of US new jobs since 2010.

Standard business classifications can’t capture the unique characteristics of this dynamic sector. Advanced industries rely on innovation, technology and a highly skilled workforce. They spur high worker productivity, pay salaries well above the average – even accounting for education and experience – and represent the bulk of national exports.

The advanced industries sector includes some 50 industries whose workers have greater than average science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills. This sector, which spends more than $450 per employee annually on research and development, includes manufacturing businesses in such fields as aerospace, motor vehicles, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, communication equipment and industrial machinery. Advanced industries in the energy field include power generation and distribution, metal ore mining, and oil and gas extraction. Several...

About the Authors

Mark Muro is a senior fellow and policy director for the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program, where Jonathan Rothwell is a fellow, Scott Andes and Kenan Fikri are senior policy analysts, and Siddharth Kulkarni is a senior research assistant.

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