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Reshoring by US Firms

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Reshoring by US Firms

What Do the Data Say?

Peterson Institute for International Economics,

5 min read
5 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Are you waiting for a return to the glory days of American manufacturing? Don’t believe the hype.

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Analytical
  • Eye Opening

Recommendation

Hooray for reshoring, the process by which the United States will reclaim its rightful place as the world’s manufacturing hub. That’s the popular notion, anyway. But economist Lindsay Oldenski throws cold water on the idea that factory jobs are coming back to America in any meaningful way. In her persuasive, peer-reviewed study, Oldenski argues that the ripples of reshoring are insufficient to reverse the tsunami of offshoring. getAbstract recommends this astute report to global business managers and politicians who need a reality check on a feel-good story.

Summary

It’s easy to believe that the US industrial sector is experiencing a wave of reshoring, a return of the manufacturing jobs that had left for countries like China and Mexico. Alas, the data don’t support such an idea. Reports of a reshoring trend rely on strictly anecdotal evidence, some of which is compelling: In 2009, General Electric transferred its water-heater production from China to Kentucky. In 2010, Master Lock brought 100 jobs back to Wisconsin. Since 2012, Caterpillar, Whirlpool, General Motors and Ford Motor Company have opened domestic plants or moved some part of their production to the United States...

About the Author

Lindsay Oldenski is a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and an associate professor of international economics at Georgetown University.


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