Report Emphasizes Positive Job Trends

Plastics Business

The Reshoring Initiative, a Chicago, Illinois-based organization, has published its annual report on reshoring trends, and the news is good. More than 60,000 manufacturing jobs were brought to the US by reshoring and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) combined in 2014, representing a 400-percent increase since 2003.

With only 30,000 to 50,000 jobs being offshored to other countries in 2014, the resulting net gain of 10,000 or more jobs per year represents a shift in the right direction, the organization noted. By comparison in 2003, the US lost net about 140,000 manufacturing jobs per year to offshoring. The steady decrease in the number of jobs lost, capped by a net gain last year, is building confidence that reshoring and FDI are important contributing factors to the country’s manufacturing rebound.

Data for the report comes from the Reshoring Initiative’s Reshoring Library of more than 2,000 published articles, privately submitted reshoring case studies and some other privately documented cases. The report provides data and analysis in 13 different categories ranging from the number of manufacturing jobs lost to offshoring and reasons cited for reshoring to a breakdown of data by industry, country, region and state. It also includes an international summary of cases reshored to other countries. Of particular interest are the reasons companies gave for reshoring and FDI. Government incentives, the skilled workforce, capitalizing on the value of a Made in USA label and automation topped the list in 2014. At the same time, companies cited lower quality, long lead times, high freight costs and rising wages as reasons against offshoring.

For more information, including a link to the full report, visit www.reshorenow.org.