We the People – Insourcing
How some foreign firms are setting up shop in former US manufacturing towns.
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| Foreign firms are finding low-skilled labour salaries in the US increasingly affordable |
Outsourcing, the mass movement of jobs overseas, was a way for US companies to save money on labour and production. But now there is a new twist – ‘insourcing’. That is when foreign companies set up plants in the US and hire Americans to do the work.
Companies from Europe, India and even China are flocking to former manufacturing towns in the US.
What is fuelling this trend? For starters, the rising price of oil and a weak dollar. And there is another reason – as wages among workers in developing countries rise the salaries of the large pool of low-skilled labour in the US are now affordable.
In fact, 5.3 million Americans now receive a pay cheque from a foreign firm. And these companies spent over $275bn in the US in 2007 – a 67 per cent increase from the previous year.
We the People travels to Danville, Virginia to explore how insourcing is changing the face of one small community.
Watch part one:
Watch part two:
This episode of We the People airs from Monday, October 13, 2008