Tag Archives: economy

Measuring the Health of Nations

Posted on January 8, 2008 by John Hunter

Measuring the Health of Nations: Updating an Earlier Analysis In a Commonwealth Fund-supported study comparing preventable deaths in 19 industrialized countries, researchers found that the United States placed last. While the other nations improved dramatically between the two study periods (1997–98 and 2002–03) the U.S. improved only slightly on the measure. Rankings: 1) France 2) Japan 3) Australia 4) Spain 5) Italy 6) Canada… 18) Portugal 19) USA. Maybe the United States is last but still not significantly behind? According … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Health care, UK | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Top 10 Manufacturing Countries

Posted on January 28, 2007 by John Hunter

The newest data from the UN* confirms most of the recent trends in manufacturing output – most notably that China continues to grow dramatically. The data also shows a stagnation in USA manufacturing output over the last several years, though the USA remains by far the largest manufacturer. The most significant news from this latest data, I believe, is that that manufacturing output growth in the USA has been slower than global manufacturing output growth from 2002-2005. This was not … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Data, Economics, India, Manufacturing | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

Applied Quality Engineering Education

Posted on January 10, 2007 by John Hunter

Classroom projects translate into immediate workplace gains for working professionals in engineering [the broken link was removed] In the final semester of his UW–Madison master’s degree, Bob Aloisi didn’t just earn a letter grade in his quality engineering class: He saved his company $50,000. It wasn’t the typical classroom outcome — but it wasn’t a typical classroom. As a student in “Quality Engineering and Quality Management,” Aloisi accomplished a major class project in quality improvement at his own workplace. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Career, Education, Management, Science | Tagged , , , ,

Global Manufacturing Data by Country

Posted on February 22, 2006 by John Hunter

I am still looking for a good source for manufacturing data by country and year. Today I found some data from the United Nations Statistics Division. The data for the top five manufacturing economies: China, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom and United States. Figures are in current $US billion. The data used is for Mining, Manufacturing and Utilities (because China and Germany do not have manufacturing data separated out). Country 2001 2002 2003 2004 United States 1,781 1,779 1,876 2,012 Japan … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Economics, Manufacturing, Popular, quote | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

America’s Manufacturing Future

Posted on December 27, 2005 by John Hunter

A Wake-up Call From Asia [the broken link was removed] by Patricia Panchak [the broken link was removed]: China and India very aggressively are pursuing advanced manufacturing. Increasingly, China’s exports to the U.S. are composed of advanced-technology products. … J.P. Morgan said it would add 4,500 employees in India by the year 2007, mainly by setting up operations in Bangalore to support its growing structured finance and derivatives businesses globally. Such jobs are not the simple, low-value call-center work that … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Economics, India, Manufacturing | Tagged , ,

Manufacturing and the Economy

Posted on October 30, 2005 by John Hunter

In Global Market, Iowa Manufacturers Fight for Survival: The conventional wisdom has been that expanded trade would result in the United States losing low-pay, low-skilled manufacturing jobs, said David Swenson, an economic scientist at Iowa State University. But “a lot of the jobs that we have traditionally thought of as high value, high quality, high benefits are in trouble, too.” The conventional wisdom was that the rest of the world would not be able to compete with the United States … Continue reading →

Posted in Data, Economics, Management, Manufacturing, Popular, quote | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Science and Engineering

Posted on October 13, 2005 by John Hunter

Broad Federal Effort Urgently Needed to Create New, High-Quality Jobs for All Americans in the 21st Century [the broken link was removed], news release on a report from the National Academies Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy – Rising Above The Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future: U.S. 12th-graders recently performed below the international average for 21 countries on a test of general knowledge in mathematics and science. This is not a new discovery, … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Science | Tagged , , ,