Offshoring hit U.S. manufacturing pretty hard. The Recession did its damage to American manufacturing back in 2007, too. But now that manufacturing employment has steadily increased for a few years, and people are getting excited about reshoring, some are claiming that manufacturing is back.
But just how back is manufacturing? Is it crawling back? Purring? Is manufacturing roaring back? Is manufacturing back at all?
Bringing manufacturing back to the U.S.
Reshoring, or bringing manufacturing production back to the United States, has been a buzzword in recent years. There’s a sense that manufacturers are choosing to bring their production back home.
It’s becoming more practical and more affordable to make goods in the U.S. There’s also an increased demand for American made goods. These factors make reshoring an attractive option for manufacturers.
Increases in manufacturing employment
Manufacturing employment has been on the rise since 2009. According the the Bureau of Labor Statistics U.S. manufacturing has added 868,000 jobs in the last 7 years. The manufacturing sector added 196,000 in 2017.
There are still fewer manufacturing jobs today than there were a decade ago when the recession began, however. According to BLS figures, there are 1.2 million fewer jobs in December of 2017 than December of 2007.
Will the U.S. ever see the same employment numbers in manufacturing? Some say that industrial automation prevents manufacturing employment from ever reaching those same figures.
Industrial automation’s role in manufacturing
Industrial automation vastly improves manufacturing. More goods can be made with fewer people working.
Industrial machines provide higher output with lower costs. Automation also yields better, more consistent products. Maybe most importantly, industrial automation frees workers from grunt work to focus on more important tasks.
Manufacturing may never see the same level of employment it did in the past. why pay people more money to work slower? Of course, automation could create new jobs in manufacturing and elevate employment figures to past heights.
Is manufacturing back?
Manufacturing is growing. Whether or not it’s roaring is up for debate.
If claims that manufacturing is back mean that manufactures are literally bringing production back to the United States from overseas, there’s some evidence of that. If the claims are that American manufacturing has recaptured it’s former glory, that’s a little less clear and much more subjective.
Glory or no glory, your factory machines need to work properly. Contact us or call 479-422-0390 (which you’ve already saved in your phone for speedy recovery from Indramat errors) for any service on your Indramat motion control system.