werepossum
Elite Member
- Jul 10, 2006
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Kind of depends on where in China and what skills are required. When GE moved its high end appliance manufacturing back to America several years back, their overall labor costs were roughly the same between Guangzhow (IIRC) and Ohio or Kentucky. There are still lots of much lower paid manufacturing positions which cost a manufacturer a fraction of what an American costs, but here we're talking the cream of manufacturing, people running automated robotic and/or CNC equipment. This type of training takes years and require smarter-than-average people, and given the extremely competitive Chinese manufacturing market, accordingly command a large premium.Yeah, cheap labor means that your products will be as ubiquitous as silicon. If they build a plant here, I don't know how they'll keep labor costs down unless by then the minimum wage will be eliminated in the state, or desperation for jobs that will undercut American dreams, or they'll get tax breaks so great that they'll be paid instead, or...
Some comments refer to the skills needed, but if it's mainly manufacturing, most of the jobs can be easily learned. Someone I knew was unskilled in micro-electronics, and Siemens hired him anyway to repair hearing aids. He was frustrated at first with the steadiness needed to solder the super-tiny components, but he got it and thrived there until that So. Cal. facility was closed. I'm guessing the jobs moved to Asia. Jobs come and go with the tide of profit and efficiency. More with less should be a motto for all business.
I don't know anything about the new Foxconn, but I assume that the low skilled manufacturing jobs will be mostly replaced with automation. Obviously this is much more difficult with repair than with manufacturing.