It wasn’t long ago when 90% of the retail products you would find at the store were made overseas. Of course, there was good reason for this: manufacturing products overseas was cheaper than manufacturing them here in the United States, to companies generally took this route with production. But there’s a growing trend towards made-in-America products, which has caused a surge in U.S. manufacturing jobs.
According to a recent study conducted by Reshore Initiative, 60,000 new U.S. manufacturing jobs were created in 2014 through “reshoring”, which is roughly five times the amount of new manufacturing jobs created just one year prior in 2013. So, what in the world is “reshoring?” The term is used to describe jobs that have come back to the U.S. from foreign investment.
As noted in by MorningStar, the net increase of 10,000 plus new U.S. jobs was first positive gain in more than 20 years. Harry Moser, founder and president of Reshore Initiative, told MarketWatch “The trend in manufacturing in the U.S. is to source domestically. With 3 [million] to 4 million manufacturing jobs still offshore, we see huge potential for even more growth.” That’s promising news for both American employers and workers alike, as the country’s economy continues to rebound from the collapse that happened just several years ago.
There are several different factors contributing to the surge in U.S. manufacturing jobs, one of which is increasing wages in countries that were traditionally lower-cost when compared to the U.S. In China, for instance, workers are being paid more, which means companies are forced to spend extra money to produce their products overseas. This added cost of employment combined with port fees and import taxes means that it’s cheaper for companies to manufacture their products here in the U.S. as opposed to overseas. In any case, the growing number of U.S. manufacturing jobs is welcomed news.
Reshore Initiative published the following mission statement on its website:
“The mission of the Reshoring Initiative is to bring good, well-paying manufacturing jobs back to the United States by assisting companies to more accurately assess their total cost of offshoring, and shift collective thinking from offshoring is cheaper to local reduces the total cost of ownership.”
In any case, the growing number of U.S. manufacturing jobs is welcomed news.
Have you noticed an increase in the number of manufacturing jobs here in the United States?