Mfg. employment up almost 100,000 in past 3 months

Chicago, Illinois – The Department of Labor’s January economic news release showed non-farm employment increased by 257,000, with unemployment at 5.7%. Most important, manufacturing employment was up 22,000 in January, almost 100,000 in the last three months, 343,000 year-over-year and 870,000 since the employment recession low in February 2010.  

Compared to the 10-year 1,927,000 decline in manufacturing employment, this announcement is good news and is consistent with the reshoring trend getting started and offshoring slowing in 2010. 

Data from the Reshoring Initiative, an organization committed to helping manufacturers recognize the profit potential of utilizing local sourcing and production, shows that reshoring plus foreign direct investment (FDI) added a record 50,000 to 60,000 manufacturing jobs in 2014 and that January 2015 U.S. manufacturing employment is above the trend line of the last 15 years.  

Harry Moser, founder and president of the Reshoring Initiative cautioned, “The recent unprecedented rise in the USD and the potential impact of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), absent strong control of currency manipulation, threaten this positive trend for manufacturing and reshoring.”

Companies can help improve manufacturing employment by consistently utilizing advanced metrics for supply chain sourcing decisions. The Reshoring Initiative’s Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Estimator is the best-known publically available tool for this purpose. It allows users to easily determine the total cost of offshoring by accounting for and understanding the relevant offshoring costs, which include inventory carrying costs, shipping expenses, intellectual property risks and more.  

Source: The Reshoring Initiative