U.S. "Re-employment" Policy Encourages Manufacturing Industry to Return from Overseas

When the entire world is accustomed to "Made in China," the United States has shouted the slogan of "Rejuvenating Manufacturing." Recently, under the influence of encouraging policies, the United States has emerged from the backflow of overseas manufacturing industries, and American companies have “re-employed” to produce a series of products ranging from chopsticks, water heaters and construction machinery. Even the American Olympic costumes produced by China have individual US members making big mistakes, and they want to burn up the "Made in China" and make new ones. But in reality, the revival of manufacturing is not as simple as it seems.

“We will not increase labor-intensive, relatively low-tech work in the United States. I don’t think we want them either. Sometimes it will make more sense to develop technologies that enhance competitiveness, and sometimes it makes more sense for the government to improve worker skills.” New York Michael Spencer, a university professor and Nobel laureate in economics, thinks so.

And Harvard University professor Lawrence Katz pointed out that the idea that manufacturing jobs will increase dramatically is totally unreliable, and that efforts to improve the U.S. infrastructure and education will be more effective in creating jobs for the middle class.

Many experts believe that in the past two years, the return of U.S. manufacturing jobs, in addition to the increase in overseas labor costs and other reasons, there are temporary and occasional factors such as changes in exchange rates, rising prices of overseas energy transportation. Therefore, this kind of recovery is a rebound after the recession. It is still a long-term phenomenon and it is still difficult to determine. Under such circumstances, if we promote the old road indiscriminately and manufacture all types of products, we can only become more excited and more difficult.

Some US media reported that Obama once asked Apple’s founder Steve Jobs how he could return the jobs in iPhone manufacturing to the United States. Jobs replied: “These jobs cannot be returned.” This is not only because foreign labor is cheaper. Apple executives also believe that the flexibility, diligence, and industrial skills of foreign workers and the huge scale of overseas factories have greatly exceeded their counterparts in the United States, so that "Made in the United States" is no longer a part of most Apple products. Possible options. The Deloitte Consulting's survey report also showed that 600,000 jobs were not filled by U.S. manufacturing companies last year, simply because companies could not find workers with the right skills.

The talent gap is not only a problem of skills and diligence, but also requires talents with new knowledge to develop new technologies. "Washington Post" published an article saying: "The manufacturing work that we need to do today is different from the manufacturing work we sent abroad this year. These jobs require very special skills and fewer workers." For example, the newspaper said that new composite materials emerge in endlessly and 3D printing technology changes the manufacturing process. This requires more skilled employees to master complex new manufacturing procedures. Therefore, future employees will need to receive extensive training in this area.

“Eliminating realities and making people empty” creates economic imbalances. To achieve “reindustrialization” and reverse this imbalance, the United States needs to rely on advanced manufacturing rather than on low-end manufacturing. This has become the consensus of many people of insight in the United States.

Harvard Business School professors Gary Pisano and Willie Stone made recommendations early in the 2009 Harvard Business Review, demanding that the government pay attention to advanced manufacturing. Because in this area, the proportion of labor costs usually shrinks, low-wage countries have little advantage. The rapidly changing world is also increasingly demanding that production be placed closer to the end market.

Advanced manufacturing refers to the next generation of manufacturing technologies and their products using high-end materials and production technologies. These industries have high value-added products and strong technical requirements, which not only provide U.S. comparative advantages, but also provide U.S. citizens with high-paying income. The China Machine Tool Network (Machine35.com) believes that the U.S. government’s policy has begun to focus on “advanced manufacturing” and given a lot of funding and tax support, while mold, shoes, clothing, metals, and mining have received little support. On the whole, there is a lot of enthusiasm for revitalizing the manufacturing industry in the United States. There is something wrong with it, and everything is undeniable. The results of the discussions have become increasingly clear.

According to the "First Financial Daily" report, in the current situation where the unemployment rate is maintained at about 8%, the outsourcing of US Olympic uniforms to the "Made in China" turmoil has made the irrational interpretation of American politics and media incisive.

In fact, through comprehensive data from various departments in the United States, it can be seen that among the apparel and footwear products, 35.6% of the products purchased by US consumers in 2010 were from China and 24.9% from the United States. This is also the only “China”. The "manufacturing" "beats" the "manufactured in the United States" area, but also only accounted for 3.4% of the total annual consumption of American consumers.

In fact, although the concept of globalization is deeply rooted in people's minds, the U.S. economy is still relatively closed. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' previous "consumption survey" report, in 2010, 70% of Americans' spending was spent on U.S.-made goods and services.

In fact, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2010, Americans spent 34% of their wages on housing, 13% for food, 11% for insurance and pension, and 7% for health care. Another 2% for education, which has reached about 70% of its total consumption. Obviously, the various types of consumption mentioned above cannot have any relationship with "Made in China."

Comment: China is still at the low end of the international division of labor. In many cases, even if the products made in China are marked, the part of the Chinese companies that actually make profits may be very small. From the above data, the "Made in China" unemployment in the United States The impact of the rate is negligible. However, at the onset of the U.S. election, politicians often add to the issue of Sino-U.S. trade issues, making "squandering flowers increasingly attractive."