An article in the New York Times (April 4,2012) describes job growth at Master Lock, a manufacturer, and the 20% of the manufacturing jobs, lost during the recent recession, that have been added back to the economy. However, some of the manufacturing jobs have been lost due to automation, others due to global competition. At Master Lock, 33% of the employees now produce the same output as in the past. How should the focus on manufacturing be tuned to enable innovation in product design and delivery ? Should investments in capital equipment and automation that decrease manufacturing jobs, be discouraged to preserve jobs ? Is there the risk that a focus on manufacturing job creation may make industries less competitive globally ? Finally, it appears that companies shielded from global competition, such as local services, seem to add jobs. Would constraints on global competition, generate jobs but hurt competitiveness ?