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NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- It's still only a trickle compared to the flood of jobs that America lost to overseas outsourcing in recent decades. But some American businesses are bringing jobs home again.
Great article. Thanks for posting it.
In my city of El Paso, TX, we lost most of the manufacturing jobs in the late 90s due to NAFTA, but in recent years, we've gotten lots of customer service call centers.
I have been seeing the work coming back for the past 6 months. Companies thought they would make big profits on cheap, overseas labor. What they don't realize is, in my line of work of manufacturing, we Americans take quality very seriously. Our work is our pride. In other countries, manufacturing is not a career, it's something you do until something better comes along. Of course, quality means nothing to them, and why should it when you make 50 cents a day?
These stupid corporations got their asses handed to them, and I hope they learned. They did not meet their profit expectations because labor is only a small part of the equation. When 50% of the work is scrap, you don't make a profit. When the cheap Chinese steel is rejected by the customer because it wasn't the specified grade, all the work must be scraped and the corporation looses. When it takes damn near 2 months to get the work done, and then you find out it is mostly scrap, and you paid big bucks to have it shipped to you, the corporation looses BIG TIME. The Chinese are good at some manufacturing, but they have a long way to go in others.
As of late, the shop I work at cannot handle all the work, so new machines are being bought and new people are being hired. Since so many shops have closed down over the past decade, there are not enough places to handle the work volume. These corporations want the work done here again, but they made this a very undesirable profession in the eyes of young people, which is why many will not take up the trades. So they made their bed, and they will have to sleep in it for awhile. Not to mention they crippled the purchasing power of a ton of their previous customers.
Some jobs are coming back, but these new factories will be far more automated. Great news for the robot population, or those who learn how to fix, or program robots.
Some jobs are coming back, but these new factories will be far more automated. Great news for the robot population, or those who learn how to fix, or program robots.
This is true, which is why manufacturing will never employ scores of people as it once did. You still need people to operate and maintain much of the automated equipment, and those people can go on to programming and setup jobs as they become more proficient. That means better wages down the road for people who stick it out. You also need material handlers, shipping/receiving, engineers, quality control, management, toilet cleaners, floor sweepers... I see these jobs returning as a blessing for everyone.
The thing that I love about manufacturing is... A young man, or woman, can start at the bottom with little education and rise to a very respected, high skill, knowledge intensive job with the right motivation and commitment. Loosing these jobs will keep people without the privilege of higher education stuck on the bottom rung of society for life. Doesn't sound like the land of opportunity to me without it.
I certainly have hoped that rising fuel costs will make it more reasonable to make stuff right here in the U.S., and not schlep it halfway around the world. That would probably apply more to big stuff than little knick-knacks and all.
It seems everyone is jumping on the Return to the USA when they read these stories and assume that jobs will be returning in a big way. But what about posting the jobs that are sent overseas? For evry ONE job that returns, I bet TEN jobs went by-by!
When i first started working the majority of the goods shipped overseas were US products with US brands that were in high demand. Most of what we shipped from asia was cheap trinkets. Somweher in between, we started shipping less US products because we were shipping the machines and equipment to make those US brand products overseas. Now we are shipping mostly fast-track office relaocations (an entire companies back office moving overnight to overseas) and shipping to the USA items that have major US brand names.
Jobs will come back but they will not balance the number that are lost. Don;t be so proud of the 100 jobs that returned because they originally shipped 1,000 jobs overseas. When tnose other 900 return, thats when the celebration should start. Oh and don;t forget that for every job they return they may still be shipping other jobs in other areas of the company overseas.
For me, it's not big deal, the more US jobs shipped overseas, the more money I make and the more secure my job is.
It seems everyone is jumping on the Return to the USA when they read these stories and assume that jobs will be returning in a big way. But what about posting the jobs that are sent overseas? For evry ONE job that returns, I bet TEN jobs went by-by!
When i first started working the majority of the goods shipped overseas were US products with US brands that were in high demand. Most of what we shipped from asia was cheap trinkets. Somweher in between, we started shipping less US products because we were shipping the machines and equipment to make those US brand products overseas. Now we are shipping mostly fast-track office relaocations (an entire companies back office moving overnight to overseas) and shipping to the USA items that have major US brand names.
Jobs will come back but they will not balance the number that are lost. Don;t be so proud of the 100 jobs that returned because they originally shipped 1,000 jobs overseas. When tnose other 900 return, thats when the celebration should start. Oh and don;t forget that for every job they return they may still be shipping other jobs in other areas of the company overseas.
For me, it's not big deal, the more US jobs shipped overseas, the more money I make and the more secure my job is.
Many of those jobs that you speak of are simply not needed anywhere anymore. Technology has replaced many of the jobs from even 10 years ago. When one machine can do the work that it used to take 100 people to do, your going to see a big impact, much like we have.
The smart people who want to continue doing the work will keep their skills up to date. There are many unemployed manufacturing workers who can no longer work because their skills are useless now. Some of these people expected the employer to foot the bill to teach them new skills. That's not the way it works anymore. Workers have to be willing and eager to stay on the cutting edge of new developments.
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