Reshoring e reshaping

"Back in 2010, a company could employ 8.3 Chinese manufacturing workers for the same price as one American worker. By 2018, the figure had plummeted to just 2.9, according to calculations based on the two countries’ statistical bureaux. Real average wages in the advanced country constituents of the G20 rose just 9 per cent between 1999 and 2017. In emerging G20 states, meanwhile, they tripled, according to the International Labor Organization.
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Given this trend, it is unsurprising that the offshoring of jobs from high wage countries to what were far cheaper emerging economies is no longer the contentious political issue it once was in some parts of the world..
“Asia is growing richer quicker than everybody else. That means that their competitive advantage is diminishing very quickly,” says Gabriel Sterne, head of global macro research at Oxford Economics.
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The McKinsey Global Institute, a think-tank, reported this year that in 2017, 43 per cent of trade in textiles and clothing was based on labour-cost arbitrage — defined as exports from countries whose GDP per capita is a fifth or less than that of the importing country. This is compared with 55 per cent in 2009.
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For furniture, toys and other labour intensive goods, the corresponding figure fell from 43 per cent to 35 per cent over the same period..
“The image of globalisation as companies searching for the lowest labour cost around the world is increasingly outdated,” says Susan Lund, co-author of the McKinsey report. “Companies are looking at a whole range of factors, like the talent base and workforce, the quality of the infrastructure and logistics, the ability to tap into innovation ecosystems,” adds Ms Lund, who also cites the growing importance of speed to market as consumer tastes change rapidly.
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Peter Colson, assistant economist at consultancy Oxford Economics, says “the tables have turned”, in terms of US manufacturers’ desire to shift production to China, with “reshoring” activity in the opposite direction starting to pick up. He notes that the gap in unit labour costs between the US and China will be even smaller than the hourly wage gap suggests, given higher US productivity."

Recordar Fevereiro de 2012, Dezembro de 2011 e Maio de 2006.

Trechos retirados de "Wage compression slows offshoring of jobs" na versão internacional do FT de ontem.