Availability of Information

• Initial research suggests that there is limited, publicly available information on American's perceptions of US steel facilities.
• In particular, the majority of relevant data is either dated and/or only tangentially relevant, given that it applies to perceptions of US steel companies.
• However, the initial hour of research indicates that meaningful information exists surrounding US public perceptions of manufacturing in the country and, in some cases, manufacturing facilities.

US Perceptions of Manufacturing Industry

• According to Deloitte, the preponderance of Americans have positive opinions of the manufacturing industry, for example:
•  83% of Americans view manufacturing as important to the country's economic prosperity
• Similarly, 80% of Americans consider manufacturing to be key to maintaining their standard of living
•  70% of people in the US believe the country should invest more in manufacturing
• Almost two-thirds (64%) of Americans consider the manufacturing industry to be "high-tech"
• However, Deloitte adds that despite these positive perceptions, US families are reluctant to work in the manufacturing industry:
• Although over two-thirds (67%) of Americans consider manufacturing jobs to be interesting, only 50% believe a career in manufacturing provides a reasonable level of pay.
• Moreover, approximately one-third of US citizens would not encourage their family members to pursue a career in this industry, due to concerns about security (77%), available career paths (70%) and compensation (64%).
• However, American families that are more familiar with manufacturing are twice as likely to encourage their offspring to pursue a career in this field.
• Additionally, Americans generally have a more positive view of the future for manufacturing jobs, because they will increasingly require technical skills (88%), improve from a safety perspective (81%), require less manual labor (77%), become more innovative (77%) and become more creative in nature.
• Lastly, Deloitte found that several segments of the US population (American parents, Generation X, those familiar with manufacturing) view manufacturing facilities as the best opportunity in the country to create new jobs.