Reshoring - Making “Made in America” and the “American Dream” a reality in 2022
At the end of World War II, half of the world's industrial production came from the United States. However by 2018, the US leadership role slipped to 17 percent of the global manufacturing output, as reported by the United Nations Statistics Division. Change is needed to restore the U.S. leadership role in making things at home again, which was the engine for good paying jobs, economic growth and a career pathway for achieving the “American Dream.” The time has come for the reshoring of manufacturing capabilities along with all of the middle-class jobs that will be created here at home.
The Reshoring Initiative was founded by Harry Moser, its president, with a goal to bring manufacturing and services back to the U.S. from overseas. It is a fast and efficient way to strengthen the U.S. economy by helping to balance the trade and budget deficits, to reduce unemployment by creating good, well-paying manufacturing jobs, and to foster a skilled workforce to help eliminate the supply chain disruptions currently plaguing the nation.
America must rebuild its skilled career ready workforce to be globally competitive with other countries. Today, organizations of all sizes are finding the greatest challenge facing them continues to be recruiting and retaining qualified candidates. A Chamber of Commerce survey finds that the lack of skilled and qualified workers needed to fill the millions of existing job openings is creating a national economic recovery crisis that poses an imminent threat to our fragile recovery and America's great resurgence.The pandemic has reinforced the need for an educational system that will prepare and graduate skilled career-ready citizens to design, make, and supply quality products at home. To replenish the talent pipeline, employers are looking for the next generation of “blue-,” “white-” and “new”-collar workers with transferable skills and capabilities. The world of work is changing with skills becoming the new currency on the labor market.
Students assume getting a four-year degree — and taking on the thousands of dollars of student-loan debt that comes along with it — is the only way to get a foot in the door at top companies. Now, prominent companies such as Tesla and Netflix are hiring employees who have the skills needed to get jobs done, with or without a degree. Glassdoor found firms like Google, Apple, and IBM do not require a college degree to land a job.
Parents, students, employers, and guidance counselors need to stop referring to these new-collar careers as “trades and vocations.” They need to be referred to as “professions” like they do in Germany and Switzerland. These countries have benchmark workforce development and apprentice programs that pay high wages for skilled professionals with low unemployment and underemployment rates.
Skilled and credentialed careers are paying off. Twenty-seven percent of people with post-secondary licenses or certificates earn more than the average bachelor’s degree recipient. Eighty percent of associate degree holders earn more than the bachelor’s median income. When asked about the strengths of U.S. manufacturing careers, a survey of manufacturing professionals confirmed that manufacturing provides stability and solid middle to upper middle-class salaries.
As the schools increase the graduation of skilled, career-ready citizens to close the skills gap, the nation’s manufacturers will have the capacity to expand, building more things at home. American manufacturers are turning to organizations like Made in America whose goal is to inspire people to innovate, build, and buy American Made. The Made in America organization brings hundreds of US manufacturers together into one place and gives them visibility of their products. Don Buckner, Sr. Chairman & CEO believes, “Our role is to stimulate patriotic spending, by educating the consumer about the importance of spending their American dollars on American made products to keep American jobs in America. A strong America equals a strong world economy.”
Educators, community leaders and families are discovering that career and technical education initiatives are valued by employers and can provide an equitable gateway for students to learn how to be capable and qualified in achieving their career goals and dreams. The actions outlined above, in tandem with the Reshoring Initiative, can bring manufacturing and good paying middle- class jobs back home again!
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Making “Made in America” and the “American Dream” a reality in 2022
Glenn Marshall is on the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) Management Team initiative for leading a “Manufacturing Renaissance” and a member of the Reshoring Initiative , Job Creators Network and Industry Reimagined 2030. For more information contact marsh8279@aol.com
Please join with industry leaders to explore technologies that are changing the way work is done. At AME Dallas 2022 you will network with practitioners who are using Industry 4.0 to bring amazing changes to their businesses, and to manufacturing. Learn how state-of-the-art 3D printing creates new possibilities. Mobile on the shop floor, co-bots and AI prescriptive analytics are just a few technologies that help employees do the work that is so important to the success of reshoring manufacturing capabilities and good paying careers back home!
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