By Betsy H. Newman | March 12, 2019
2018 Annual Report
The Western Rural Development Center's 2018 Annual Report includes highlights from the year along with a message from Executive Director Don E. Albrecht.
From the Director: "Manufacturing employment in the United States reached a peak at more than 19 million jobs in 1979. Since then, the number of manufacturing jobs has steadily declined. Today, there are over seven million fewer manufacturing jobs than in the 1970s. By far the most significant factor in these declines is technological developments where machines replace human labor in the production process. With modern technology, production in all of these sectors has increased sharply despite a much smaller workforce."