Resource 1: Timing

In 2014, after decades of increasing offshoring, reshoring (by U.S. companies) plus FDI (by foreign companies) brought back to the U.S. more manufacturing jobs than were lost to offshoring. This was a huge improvement from a net 100,000 to 140,000 annual job loss 10 years earlier. The factors that drove this reversal are key reasons for companies to reevaluate offshore vs. domestic sourcing now. They include:

• Chinese labor $ costs per unit of output 4X as high as in 2000
• U.S. low natural gas and energy prices
• Broad industry and government effort to strengthen U.S. manufacturing competitiveness: apprenticeships, certificates, community college training, National Network for Manufacturing Innovation
• Automation: increasingly affordable and flexible
• Apparent increased global political instability
• Increasing recognition of, and ability to quantify, a range of costs, risks and strategic impacts that were ignored when companies offshored. Risk example: the 2015 West Coast docks dispute.
• Data showing that hundreds of companies in a broad range of industries are successfully reshoring:
  -industries, number of companies, jobs, reasons
  -names of companies
  -survey data, etc.
• Need for customer responsiveness, customization, fast product launch, etc.
• Increased consumer preference for Made in USA products
• Increased retailer focus on offering more Made in USA products, most notably Walmart’s $250 billion program