Home is where the part is

A lot has been written about reshoring in recent years.

Bringing manufacturing operations back to their home country (usually the U.S.) from overseas (usually China) has a patriotic feel to it, and reshoring can also bring back jobs (usually manufacturing ones) as well.

The Reshoring Initiative, Lake Zurich, Ill., led by the indomitable Harry Moser, has been working hard for several years to help companies reshore manufacturing to the U.S. In an April report, the group said more than 60,000 manufacturing jobs were brought to the U.S. by reshoring and foreign direct investment in 2014. With 30,000 to 50,000 jobs being offshored to other countries from the U.S. in 2014, the net gain was at least 10,000 jobs, the group said.

A.T. Kearney, Chicago, a management consulting company, found a different result. Its Reshoring Index indicated that, in aggregate, reshoring in the U.S. dropped by 20 basis points in 2014 compared to 2013, meaning imports of manufactured goods increased faster than exports. However, Kearny did find the top three reshoring industries in the U.S. were electrical equipment, appliances and component manufacturing.