Economy
The End of Blue Collar Work?
Companies like Milwaukee's Rockwell Automation excel at productivity, but create far fewer jobs than traditional manufacturing.
This article is part of a weeklong America 360 series on Milwaukee.
MILWAUKEE--Sailors on Lake Michigan know they're approaching the south side of Milwaukee when they spot the Allen-Bradley Clock Tower. But the building beneath the tower acts as a marker of another sort: the structure originally built to be a manufacturing plant is now filled with white-collar professionals. As the global headquarters of Rockwell Automation, the Allen-Bradley building provides office space for 3,100 employees who range from product development engineers to sales and marketing teams and corporate executives. They're in the manufacturing business, but it's not quite the same business that once made Milwaukee prosperous.