Clinton: Make manufacturing ‘sexy’ for job growth

Hillary Clinton on Friday said that the manufacturing sector can attract scores of new employees by making its jobs look more attractive.

“We’ve got to make it sexy,” she said during a roundtable at the Institute of Technology at Syracuse Central in Syracuse, N.Y.

{mosads}“A lot of parents don’t encourage their kids to go into advanced manufacturing even though, if they acquire the right skills, they can make a very nice living,” the Democratic presidential candidate said.

“We’ve got to lift up those jobs. We’ve got to have some TV shows about them and have some characters about them. We’ve got to make it sexy, somehow convey all the opportunities that are out there.”

Clinton’s remarks came while she was unveiling a proposed $10 billion strategy for investing in American manufacturing companies. Her pitch centers on encouraging U.S. companies to build and expand their domestic operations in an attempt at curbing outsourcing nationwide.

Clinton on Friday argued that economic growth is an issue that transcends both party and ideological lines.

“This is not a partisan issue, this is problem-solving,” the former secretary of State said. “Anybody with a good idea, come to the table.

“Imagine the future we can create together. We do have to have imagination, and we do have to take risks. My goal in this campaign and if I am elected president, if I am so fortunate, is to raise our sights higher again.”

Clinton’s campaign said earlier Friday that her proposal’s cost is largely offset by her suggested “clawback” tax, which would rescind tax relief for companies outsourcing their jobs and facilities abroad.

The Republican National Committee responded that afternoon, dismissing Clinton’s plan as an economic dead end.

“Under President Obama we’ve lost 270,000 manufacturing jobs, including 29,000 just last month, and all Hillary Clinton will deliver is more of the same,” RNC spokesman Michael Short said in a statement.

“Whether it’s her broken promise to bring 200,000 jobs to upstate New York or her belief outsourcing is an ‘inevitability’ that will continue, Hillary Clinton has shown she doesn’t have the answers to keep our manufacturing jobs from disappearing.”

A jobs report released Friday shows the 29,000-job decline in the manufactuing sector in March but an overall gain of 215,000.