A few days ago in Raleigh, NC, President Obama the government’s intentions to strengthen the United States manufacturing sector and stimulate advanced manufacturing.

He visited North Carolina to promote technology-enhanced, 21^st-century manufacturing jobs as the key to an economy that offers well-paying jobs to middle-class citizens. While in Raleigh, Obama announced a

Obama announced that America’s newest high-tech manufacturing hub is going to be based in Raleigh, NC.  North Carolina State will be the base of the first hub where universities and companies can work together to invent, design, and make new products.

But why North Carolina? What makes Raleigh stand out against places like Nebraska?

Raleigh, North Carolina was chosen because about a fifth of its economy comes from manufacturing, as well as the state meeting revenue targets, which will drop to 4% in 2016. Combined with North Carolina’s large job loss during the recession, these were promising signs to the government.

But manufacturers in Nebraska account for 11.6 percent of the total output of the state and employ an estimated 10 percent of the workforce. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has an exceptional college of engineering that has often been for its faculty and research.

The hub in North Carolina will be on a pro-growth, pro-business agenda, meaning that it should create more jobs and opportunities for citizens living in North Carolina. If Nebraska became an economic hub, it’s likely that manufacturing more manufacturing and high-tech jobs would pop up—which would be a great addition to our already strong manufacturing sector.

And since Nebraska has been noted most recently for our business climate, it only makes sense for a hub to be located in the central part of America where

If Nebraska can continue catching up with the global manufacturers by using , then there would be no questions asked about whether there should be a manufacturing hub in Nebraska or not.

In Raleigh, President Obama noted that there were two more hubs to be announced, led by the Pentagon, “to foster digital manufacturing and modern metals innovation.”

If 3D-printing can bring life into technology in manufacturing companies around Nebraska, then maybe a hub can push digital manufacturing even further, starting with a STEM-central plan. We would love to see Nebraska become a manufacturing hub like North Carolina—more innovation is never a bad thing.

But for now, North Carolina is a good place to kick start more jobs in the manufacturing frontier, as well as attracting people to the idea of manufacturing. The next generation of more efficient power devices will be designed there, and the work we do here in our state will only continue to stimulate the national economic climate.

—

Photo credit: Sara D. Davis/Getty Images via