There’s nothing like a visit from Ford Motor Co. President and CEO Alan Mulally to make you feel better about U.S. business.

Heading into the Labor Day weekend, new figures showed the nation’s unemployment rate rising slightly to 9.6 percent. At the same time, however, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that private employers had added 67,000 new jobs in the last month. There also was some good news from the Institute for Supply Management, which reported growth in U.S. manufacturing and rising demand for U.S. exports.

In remarks at the Lawrence Schools Foundation’s Community Education Breakfast Friday morning, Mulally talked about the importance of the manufacturing sector to the U.S. economy and bemoaned the fact that America had lost its reputation for businesses that “make things.”

Mulally’s illustrious career has been all about “making things” and he said he was honored to have been able to lead two of the nation’s most iconic manufacturing companies: Boeing and Ford. He was trained as an engineer at Kansas University, and when he was asked how to get young students interested in math and science, his face lit up with enthusiasm for his work and the opportunity to develop and manufacture new products.

Labor Day was founded primarily to recognize the efforts of labor unions in gaining better working conditions for American workers. Organized labor leaders might not applaud all of Mulally’s efforts, which included huge reductions in Ford’s workforce and in benefits to union workers, but they also must recognize that his work at Ford saved thousands of jobs that would have been lost if he hadn’t turned the company around.

Ford reported in July that after record losses in 2008, it made $2.6 billion in the second quarter of this year and expects to end 2011 with more cash than debt. Mulally further endeared himself to the American public by accomplishing that feat without the assistance of federal bailout funds.

Labor Day continues to pay tribute to the contributions American workers make to the strength and prosperity of the nation. That contribution is, perhaps, most obvious for workers in the manufacturing sector who make products that can be sold in the United States and exported around the world.

Current jobless numbers are discouraging and economic recovery is moving too slowly, but on this Labor Day, the enthusiasm of Ford Motor Company’s CEO can’t help but make people have hope for the future.