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Manufacturing never left. The US outputs a greater total value of manufactured goods today than at any point in history. China's manufacturing sector is only 3
by ef4 14y ago
Manufacturing never left. The US outputs a greater total value of manufactured goods today than at any point in history.
China's manufacturing sector is only 3% bigger than the US.
What disappeared were the unskilled jobs, and they are never coming back, because they are rapidly becoming obsolete.
Once upon a time almost everyone worked in agriculture. Now it's about 3%, and that 3% produces more food than ever. Expect the same thing to happen to manufacturing.
- cageface 14y agoThe implication here is that the kind of manufacturing work that helped lift China out of poverty may never migrate to the rest of the world's developing nations. It may turn out that the time window in which a developing country could ride the outsourcing train to prosperity was actually only a few decades wide.
- thenomad 14y agoManufacturing isn't the only outsourcable work, though. Customer service, programming, and other things less easily replicated by 3D printing and robots will still be outsourced for a while yet.
- icebraining 14y agoBoth of those are much more skilled jobs, though.
- gadders 14y agoHa. I saw the headline and quickly clicked through to post essentially what you have just said. How many people do a thing should never be a measure, unless you don't care about inefficiency.
- hristov 14y agoThen where do I buy an american made cell phone or television set?
- adestefan 14y agoA number if the parts in your cell phone and TV are manufactured in the US. It's the final assembly that happens overseas.
- nathan_long 14y ago>> What disappeared were the unskilled jobs, and they are never coming back, because they are rapidly becoming obsolete. This. To get a job, the new requirement is to be able to do something that a robot can't do. And robots are improving rapidly. Just like steam shovels put ditch diggers out of work, and spreadsheets put human calculators out of work, robots are putting factory workers out of work. As their dexterity and visual abilities improve, and their cost decreases, they'll start taking over other jobs: picking crops, washing dishes and cars, laying bricks, etc. The big question, for which I don't have an answer, is whose problem it is when workers' skills become obsolete.
- waveman2 14y agoYou need to look carefully at the definition of manufacturing before you get too excited. For example, did you know the staff at MacDonald's "manufactures" burgers? As a reality check, how many people do you know who work in manufacturing? BTW the only reason manufacturing is coming back is because the jobs are completely disappearing from it due to robotics and automation. From wikipedia "Employment in manufacturing ... its lowest since July 1950".