Jobs Returning from China?

[GodFearinGunTotin]

According to this article, rising Chinese labor rates are reducing the competitive advantage of manufacturing in China.

Manufacturing Jobs: The Prodigal Job Returns

 

[Denny347]

I saw something about that a couple of months ago. Labor rates and the increase in fuel costs have made China much less competitive than before. Makes sense.

 

[ductileiron98]

Can you say full circle ! I hope this is true. Plus, the products comming out of China is pure garbage !

 

[CindyE]

i hope so! seems it keeps getting harder to ship stuff internationally too, more rules and regulations than ever...

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

I used to figure it would come full circle one way or another, like the poor workers of the former People's Republic of North America being exploited as slave labor by the rich capitalists from Haiti. China's been doing some brain damaged stuff the last few years, like building large beautiful cities that nobody can afford to live in, parking lots full of cars nobody can afford to drive, giant shopping malls with two or three stores occupied.

They've alienated themselves from economic basics for so long, they're like the underpants gnomes:

1. Build a city.
2. ?
3. Profit!

Of course, we've alienated ourselves from economic reality for different reasons, but in our case, profit has become a bad word.

 

[ghuns]

The tooling/machining industry, molds, dies, etc have been taking a beating at the hands of China for years. It's starting to come back. The problem is that our capacity has been greatly reduced and we can no longer keep up with demand. I knew a guy who went to work in sales for a Chinese tool shop 10 years or so ago. People in the trades called him every name in the book. His response was always that it was inevitable that a certain amount of the work was going there and that the fastest way to even the playing field was to turn them into consumerist pigs like us as fast as possible. When they are no longer content with $1 a day and a dumpy apartment, but instead insist on an actual house, and that bike is no longer a good as having a shiny new car, we will have won. It will be a short term win, as there will always be somebody cheaper waiting in the wings. India seems happy to suck up all the white collar outsourcing, not sure if we’ll see manufacturing start moving there, or maybe to somewhere in Africa if any of it’s gov’t can remain stable for long enough to pave a road.

 

[mainjet]

It's actually been changing for some time now. Things have been returning or not going over there in the first place.

It used to tick me off that someone could order their product from the other side of the world and get it delivered cheaper than they could buy it from me across the street.

Several years ago it was 30 days on the water which would keep my customers from buying from them because of the lead time. But in the last several years that time on the water has been vastly reduced and it made it easier to buy from them.

But the other thing that would make me mad was when there was a mistake made by the Chinese manufacturer. Then because it was not discovered until it was too late, my "old" customer would come to me to quickly make the part that was missing in the Chinese product. Well, I am not a bridge burner, so I would make it just for the good will and hopes that when it did come back they would get it from me because I treated them right when they needed me.

 

[sepe]

Yep, it has been happening for several years. Some of the jobs have returned while others have been sent to other cheap labor countries.