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WASHINGTON—President Obama has issued a pair of executive orders that aim to help U.S. manufacturers. The first will create three manufacturing institutes using $200 million from the budgets of five agencies. The second requires that government data be made available to the public—and to entrepreneurs—in manageable formats that could be more easily used by researchers and businesses to jump-start new products and services.

WASHINGTON—In another sign that America is becoming more competitive in manufacturing, the United States is now equal to Mexico in “attractiveness” as a source for manufacturing operations and is on track to achieve cost parity with manufactured imports from China by 2015. That’s according to new research released by AlixPartners.

NEW YORK—In a move to attract the next generation into manufacturing, ThomasNet has launched the North American Manufacturing Scholarship Program. Up to 30 graduating high school seniors with an interest in manufacturing careers will each receive a $1,000 scholarship to pursue studies at a two-year or four-year college, or a vocational-technical school.

Manufacturers often fail to recognize the ability of their employees to learn and think.

WASHINGTON—CEOs’ expectations for the economy over the next six months have improved due to expected higher sales and capital spending, but expectations for hiring remain flat, according to the last economic outlook survey from the Business Roundtable.