Why tech manufacturing jobs are coming back to America
For the first time in more than a decade, technology manufacturing jobs are on the rise in the United States, according to new research from Jones Lang LaSalle. The jobs aren't surging back, per se; the research company predicts job growth at a rate of around 0.7 percent through 2018, up from around 1.1 million jobs at the end of 2012. Cities with a large concentration of highly educated tech workers -- such as Silicon Valley and Austin, Texas -- will see the greatest influx of manufacturing jobs.
JLL cited several reasons that American tech companies see greater value in creating tech jobs in the States, despite the relatively low real estate and labor costs in popular offshore locales.
To start, offshoring isn't as cheap as it used to be. For example, wages of around 60 cents an hour during the height of the technological migration to Asia have risen to as high as $6 per hour in China's eastern manufacturing centers, according to JLL. Increasing oil prices also play a role.
Second, as tech companies see increasing global competition, they need to protect their intellectual capital in new product manufacturing, and keeping production of new products within the United States makes it easier.
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http://www.infoworld.com/t/it-jobs/why-tech-manufacturing-jobs-are-coming-back-america-219628
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