There is a debate raging in national policy circles about the role of manufacturing in the U.S. The last couple of decades have hollowed out American manufacturing, but it has been a bright spot in an otherwise meek recovery. And policy experts are divided on what, if anything, should be done to bolster the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing.

On one side are economists who warn against policies that would interfere with markets for the sake of trying to preserve jobs. They’d rather see efforts targeted at infrastructure and education. On the other side are experts who point out that manufacturing is a critical part of the innovation process and fear that our edge in innovation will erode if we cede manufacturing.

It’s against this backdrop that The Brookings Institution has released its new report on U.S. manufacturing complete with detailed city-by-city breakdowns. And it confirms what shouldn’t be a surprise to Bostonians: the city is a hub for advanced manufacturing.

Specifically, greater Boston is home to a cluster of information technology manufacturing, with 40.4% of manufacturing jobs in the area classified as “very high tech,” compared to the national average of 16%. And average wages in very high tech manufacturing are even higher than the national average, at $110,142.

As MassHighTech reported earlier today, industry leaders and government officials have been meeting for the last two days to talk about manufacturing in Boston, so it’s at the forefront of a lot of peoples’ minds right now.

From the Brookings report:

The phrase “urban manufacturing” evokes images of a sooty skyline, cramped sweatshops or the massive automotive assembly lines of mid-20th century Detroit. But urban manufacturing today involves small, specialized firms that rely on advanced technology and workers with different skill sets than in the past.

In other words, the only certainty is that manufacturing in Boston tomorrow won’t look the same as yesterday. And that’s where I get hung up in trying to pick sides in this debate. If the case for manufacturing is innovation, then promoting it starts to blur into a lot of other innovation policies like subsidizing R&D or technical education. After a while “save manufacturing” stops being a useful lens and “build robust innovation clusters” takes its place.