More at stake than just jobs.

Textiles. Steel. Electronics.

Each of these once-proud American industries has been battered and bruised by foreign competition.

In recent years, the U.S. wood furniture industry has joined the club of industries that have been steamrolled by lower-cost imports. At the current pace of furniture import growth, it is likely that more than half of all wood furniture sold here this year will have been made outside the United States.

The impact of this trend on the furniture job market is readily apparent in the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers. Between May of 2000 and May of 2003, U.S. wood furniture employment fell 30%, from 112,900 to 79,000. Nearly 12,000 of those jobs were lost since the beginning of this year.

Maintaining Manufacturing Muscle

The wood furniture industry's job losses represent a mere drop in the bucket when viewed in the big picture of U.S. manufacturing. According to a white paper commissioned by the National Association of Manufacturers, 2.3 million manufacturing jobs have been lost since July 2000.

The executive summary of the study, "Securing America's Future: The Case for a Strong Manufacturing Base," concludes with this dire warning: "If the U.S. manufacturing base continues to shrink at its present rate and the critical mass is lost, the manufacturing innovation process will shift to other global centers. Once that happens, a decline in U.S. living standards in the future is virtually assured."

The study highlights a wide variety of benefits generated by a strong manufacturing base that stand to be lost if current trends go unabated. Among other things, the NAM study says manufacturing:

* Grows the economy--Every $1 on final demand for manufactured goods generates an additional $0.67 in other manufactured products and $0.76 in products and services from non-manufacturing sectors.

* Invents the future--Manufacturers are responsible for nearly two-thirds of private sector R&D.

* Generates productivity increases--Manufacturing productivity gains are historically higher than those of any other economic sector.

* Provides more rewarding employment--Manufacturing salaries and benefits average $54,000, higher than the average for the total private sector.

* Pays the taxes--During the 1990s, manufacturing corporations paid 30-34% of all corporate taxes collected by state and local governments, Social Security and payroll taxes, excise taxes, import and tariff duties, environmental taxes and license taxes.

In a nutshell, the NAM study illustrates the chain reaction of negative consequences that occurs when a furniture or other type of manufacturer shuts its doors and puts its people out en masse on the street.

The study's insightful perspectives give fresh cause to cheer the U.S. furniture and wood products companies that are doing all they can to not only save jobs, but help preserve the American way of life.

The full report is available on NAM's Web site, www.nam.org, and on the Wood Machinery Manufacturers of America's Web site, www.wmma.org.