U.S. President Barack Obama tours the Port of Tampa in Florida
(Kevin Lamarque Reuters, REUTERS / April 13, 2012)
BOSTON (Reuters) – Rising U.S. factory productivity, spurred by falling natural gas prices, could help the nation boost exports of products such as locomotives and factory machinery and add as many as 5 million manufacturing and support jobs by the decade’s end, a new analysis found.
High worker productivity and low energy prices driven by a surge in shale gas production will give the United States a cost advantage in exports against Western European rivals and Japan in the coming years, according to a Boston Consulting Group report set for release on Friday.
By 2015, those factors will make average manufacturing costs in the United States lower by …(read the rest of the article at the source)
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