Several days before his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama met with a group of 25 companies to talk about ways outsourced manufacturing jobs could be brought back to the U.S.
During the meeting, the group examined the actual costs of sending work overseas. While at one time cheaper fuel and labor costs in other countries was a motivator for outsourcing, this is no longer the case. Between 2002 and 2011 the price for a barrel of oil rose from $22.81 to $87.48, and employee wages in China rose 15% each year during that same spanse of time.
With shifts like these, as well as other costs associated with outsourcing such as having to travel to out-of-country suppliers, some companies have begun bringing manufacturing work back to the U.S. Caterpillar, Ford and General Electric are a few of the companies slowly returning to American-based manufacturing.
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