They are also well placed to bring something extra to the teaching side of an academic role that will help students get a job when they graduate, says Lee, perhaps experience in manufacturing practice or product development.

In fact, they are less significant, but steel-related manufacturing still accounts for 44% of industrial activity.

What does the woman say about the steel-related manufacturing in the region

Indeed, on a global scale, fertiliser manufacturing consumes about 3-5% of the world's annual natural gas supply.

But at a time when the American factory seems to be a shrinking presence, and when good manufacturing jobs have vanished, perhaps never to return, there is something deeply troubling about this dilution of American craftsmanship.

Ask the administration or the Republicans or most academics why America needs more manufacturing, and they respond that manufacturing gives birth to innovation, brings down the trade deficit, strengthens the dollar, generates jobs, arms the military and brings about a recovery from recession

But rarely, if ever, do they publicly take the argument a step further, asserting that a growing manufacturing sector encourages craftsmanship and that craftsmanship is, if not a birthright, then a vital ingredient of the American self-image as a can-do, inventive, we-can-make-anything people.

The decline started in the 1950s, when manufacturing generated a sturdy 28% of the national income, or gross domestic product, and employed one-third of the workforce

The damage to American craftsmanship seems to parallel the steep slide in manufacturing employment.

It is essential to advanced manufacturing

How does the author view manufacturing?

What do we learn about America's manufacturing in the 1950s

People can earn more money in fields other than manufacturing.

to automate its manufacturing and service industries

Manufacturing companies on average rely on more than 35 contract suppliers around the world to create a single product.