Australian manufacturing is in trouble. Profits are down and jobs are going.

The industry employs around one million Australians – five times more than mining. But it's haemorrhaged 86,000 jobs in the last 10 years and more workers are being laid off each month.

On Insight, manufacturing workers front up to managers and economists to debate whether the industry is worth supporting, whether government subsidies are good policy, and what the future might hold.