According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. manufacturing jobs have been on a steady decline since 2000, with 5 million jobs going overseas since then. While 12.3 million Americans still work in the sector, it equates to only 8% of the workforce, compared to 24% of the workforce in 1960. Yet Reshoring Initiative’s 2015 Reshoring Report shows that for the second year in a row, the number of jobs returning to the U.S. remains on par or higher than the number of jobs leaving. “The top reasons American manufacturers are bringing jobs back home are government incentives, localization, proximity to customers and an increasingly skilled workforce.” Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, said in an article at CNN.com that while challenges remain, “manufacturing is certainly doing a lot better than it was in most of the 2000s and in the Great Recession.” According to the report, the top reasons American manufacturers were bringing jobs back home were government incentives, localization, proximity to customers and an increasingly skilled workforce. Companies also cited leading problems offshore at lower quality, supply interruption, and high freight costs. Deloitte reported in its 2016 Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index that the sector’s gross exports grew 3.6% to $143 billion in 2015. The index also revealed the United States is now the second most competitive manufacturing economy after China and will surpass the Asian nation by the year 2020. CEOs surveyed in the report said that advanced manufacturing technologies are the key to unlocking future competitiveness. Craig Giffi, Deloitte U.S. Automotive Sector leader, said the U.S.’ primary advantages are that it excels in “creating connections and synergy between people, technology, capital and organizations to form a cohesive ecosystem of innovation.” Paul said tha twhile there are prospects for a return of jobs, there […]