The manufacturing industry in the United States was predicted to be all but obsolete only a few years ago. With the rise of Silicon Valley and the wave of outsourcing manufacturing and labor production to foreign countries, many considered the industry to be a blip in America’s long forgotten past.
For the past few decades, America has seen an increase in the number of people working white collar jobs that typically require a college degree. With this increase, more and more manufacturing jobs, typically considered to be blue collar jobs, have been outsourced to other countries. For a while this was considered to be an indication of America’s success, but recently we have begun to see the negative effects that come along with this way of producing.
As quickly as it seemed to have dropped out of the norm, however, manufacturing seems to have quickly been realized to be the key asset that it is to the success of our economy. With the focus turned to the future of the United States and its place in the world, sustainability, climate change, and the workforce, it is becoming clear that manufacturing will play a larger role in the innovative future. Keep reading to find out how.
Creating Reliable and Skill Based Jobs
America was once the hub for manufacturing, factory, and production jobs in general. This is a component that aided greatly in its rapid rise to ‘power’ in terms of international relations. As a country, we were producing more and therefore repairing the economic benefits as such. America was a destination for many who did not have the privilege of an education or the technical skills to work a white collar job. Although manufacturing jobs were considered to be “unskilled,” the opposite is true.
Manufacturing as an industry requires highly skilled workers who have been properly trained in specific areas. The benefit to this type of skill, however, is that it can be learned in a matter of weeks and with the proper exposure. Manufacturing creates thousands and thousands of jobs that are reliable and pay well. With the country heading into what appears to be another recession, this has never been more important.
Saving Unnecessary Outsourcing Costs
The pandemic shed a light on many of the previously not forethought negatives that come with outsourcing manufacturing. Although America no longer produces as much, we consume twice as much. In order to maintain this rapid consumption, shipping and distribution must be meticulously held to schedule. Obviously with a worldwide pandemic, this process was greatly interrupted, between people getting sick, quitting their jobs, or due to border control regulations. Two years into the pandemic and it seems that this issue of supply chain delays will never resolve. Many are realizing that having so many goods shipped overseas is too expensive, not to mention high risk. Bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. would allow middleman shipping costs and overseas shipping hazards to be eliminated from the cost of production and distribution. A cost that many argue, could be redirected to the wages of manufacturing workers in America.
Promoting Sustainability and Humanity
In addition to saving costs, eliminating shipping costs would reduce the carbon footprint of the supply chain significantly. Additionally, regulations surrounding production and manufacturing would be able to be better monitored if in America. A huge contributor to climate change is the mass production of outsourced products. In other countries where limitations are not as strict, chemicals are openly dumped into bodies of water, fabric with micro-plastics are made in mass quantities, and even more so alarming workers are extremely mistreated. If the larger majority of manufacturing and production work were brought back to U.S. soil, workers and the environment would be protected under United States law.
Only a few years ago, not many people could have predicted that an industry the collective U.S. wanted to leave in the past would be one of our saving graces in the future. Manufacturing isn’t going anywhere, it’s taking us into the future and will only create more opportunities for workers. Get ahead of the game and contact AMTEP today to discuss potential training options, getting you into a successful career in manufacturing for years to come.