Perspectives from ISB

There is a trend in the US to bring manufacturing back to its shore. A recent article describes Google’s plan to manufacture its new entertainment device in the Silicon Valley instead of China. The article also states that by 2015 the labor-cost savings by manufacturing in China to be 10 to 15 percent. The relative small benefits, the article states, should see more jobs return to the US. We should perhaps step back and ask why nearly millions manufacturing related jobs left US shores since 2000. I believe that both significant events that affected the US and world economy and steady improvement in manufacturing capabilities in different parts of the world account for the entry and exit. The latter is some what predictable but the former seems to also drive the major movement of manufacturing.

Now Airbus seems to have joined the bandwagon!