Re:Why manufacturing jobs aren't coming back to the U.S
by Pigo on Monday May 01, 2017 @01:50PM
(#14239787)
I've worked for a steel manufacturer for a short time, it was an interesting experience. I liked the idea of doing some lower level coding. Most of the people who worked in IT had been there for over 30 years. People who'd been there for 10, were still newbies. The cool aspect of it, was their willingness to listen to anyone who had innovative ideas, because it often came from workforce on the line. What scared me, was the lack of anyone under 50. It felt like there was no investment in a future because they didn't expect one.
Certainly not highly skilled traditional manufacturing jobs, like machining and the like.
Making almost everything requires skill; certainly making it well. Assembling certain pieces may be something easy that anyone can be trained to do, but not necessarily making those pieces.
One reason manufacturing won't come back to a given area is that the people who know how to do that are retired, or dead, and their grandkids don't know how to do that sort of work.
It's not just about money.
I don't think labor in China is as cheap as it used to be. Choosing as an example an entry-level assembling job that requires no skill other than reciting the alphabet is rather a cherry-picked example. That's not going to pay well anywhere.
Skilled people aren't going to work for peanuts just because they are located in China. Or if they are, that won't last for long.