--- description: Bucking the decades-old wave of offshoring of manufacturing jobs to China, other parts of Asia and Mexico, GE said it would move jobs back from... title: A New Chinese Export — Jobs image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta6350dca37b769cb/698a8c1916d884002ac43f37/ge_factory.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) # A New Chinese Export — Jobs by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Apr 12, 2012 12:00 PM CUT  Employees at a General Electric Co. production facility work to assemble MRI devices in Beijing, China, on July 22, 2011. Employees at a General Electric Co. production facility work to assemble MRI devices in Beijing, China, on July 22, 2011.Nelson Ching / Bloomberg / Getty Images by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Apr 12, 2012 12:00 PM CUT Bucking the decades-old wave of offshoring of manufacturing jobs to China, other parts of Asia and Mexico, GE said it would move jobs back from these countries to the United States, where it will build water heaters. more Jeffrey Immelt, GE’s chairman and CEO, notes that his decision to invest $1 billion in GE’s appliance business in the U.S. is [“as risky an investment as we have ever made”](http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/21a46546-78f1-11e1-88c5-00144feab49a.html#axzz1r0KenIO8 "undefined"). Yet, this brand of “re-shoring” – returning to the U.S. some manufacturing jobs that were earlier shipped overseas — is expected to pick up over the next several years as momentum shifts somewhat away from automatic decisions by U.S. manufacturers to operate lower-cost plants overseas. Factors encouraging this reversal include sharply rising relative manufacturing costs in China, accentuated by stagnant U.S. wages and productivity gains, steady renminbi appreciation, steeper transportation costs as oil prices rise and costlier maintenance of longer supply chains. (**MORE:** [Is Manufacturing Really Back?)](http://business.time.com/2012/01/23/is-manufacturing-really-back/?iid=biz-main-lede "undefined") Hal Sirkin, a senior partner and managing director at the Boston Consulting Group, noted in this recent [Knowledge@Wharton interview](http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2945 "undefined"), that “wages are rising very quickly in China, somewhere on the order of 15% to 20% a year and maybe even higher. The renminbi … is rising at 4% a year.” In February, GE Appliances announced it was opening a water heater plant at Appliance Park in Louisville, Ky., the first new plant at the site in more than 50 years. Eventually, GE plans to invest $800 million in Louisville, part of a $1 billion commitment to create 1,300 new jobs in the U.S. by 2014\. Many of those jobs are being shifted from a water heater plant in China. In addition to standard manufacturing jobs, GE says the new facility will create “hundreds of highly skilled salaried jobs in fields like engineering, industrial design and manufacturing.” So how big a trend might this re-shoring turn out to be? “Some jobs might return to the U.S., but not millions,” says Wharton management professor [Marshall Meyer](http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/faculty/meyer.cfm "undefined"). “China now has an advantage in manufacturing infrastructure — both physical and human — for example, the availability of engineers. And countries like Vietnam and Indonesia will draw manufacturers seeking low-cost labor. Some Chinese companies are already outsourcing to Vietnam and Indonesia,” among other countries. Wharton management professor [Mauro Guillen](http://mgmt.wharton.upenn.edu/people/faculty.cfm?id=1324 "undefined") points out that “Yes, because of rising wages and currency movements, Chinese costs are rising. And wait until the dollar takes a real hit. But keep in mind that other locations are now becoming attractive, for example, Vietnam and Bangladesh.” (**MORE:** [Why Manufacturing Can’t Solve The Jobs Problem](http://business.time.com/2012/01/27/why-manufacturing-cant-solve-the-jobs-problem/?iid=biz-main-lede "undefined")) Meanwhile, the evolving, global manufacturing landscape is turning up some valuable lessons regarding “the hidden costs of global supply chains, including their susceptibility to catastrophic collapse – such as in late 2008 — and to fuel prices today,” Meyer points out. Ocean shipping is one good example: “The carriers are all losing money, some \[of them\] billions, due to overcapacity and the high cost of bunker oil, which may go higher when they are forced to switch to low-emissions fuel. Inevitably, as in the airline industry, there will be industry consolidation reduced capacity, and much higher shipping prices.” For Sirkin, though, the trend seems clear. “I think we’re still in the early stages. You see big companies like National Cash Register — NCR — that was manufacturing their ATMs in China for the U.S. and is now manufacturing in Columbus, Ga. You see Ford adding jobs into its plants. I think they committed to 12,000 jobs …. It’s also smaller companies. So Farouk Systems, which makes hair dryers, has moved 1,500 jobs back from China to the U.S. You see Coleman, the manufacturer of water coolers, starting to build water coolers in the U.S. ….” And it some cases, it appears, companies are moving production back to the U.S, because they no longer want their designs and processes getting copied. Notes this _Chicago Tribune_ [article](http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-03-27/site/ct-biz-0326-reshoring-20120324%5F1%5Fmanufacturing-plant-china-wages "undefined"): Peerless Industries “decided in 2009 to buy equipment to make in-house its aluminum mounts that are used to fix flat-panel televisions to walls. The move followed nearly a decade of dealing with Chinese companies copying their products, said Michael Campagna, the company’s president and chief operating officer.” (**MORE:** [The Jobless Generation](http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2111232,00.html?pcd=pw-biz "undefined")) For further reading from Knowledge@Wharton Today: [**China’s Sinking Competitiveness**](http://knowledgetoday.wharton.upenn.edu/2011/06/china%E2%80%99s-sinking-competitiveness/ "undefined") It’s pretty much what it sounds like. No matter how much porn people are watching, real-life sex is still taboo. So why not put couples into a large box, wait while they have sex, then interview them when they come out to get an honest take on sexual activity? At least that’s the premise of Sex Box, a British show that’s now coming to the U.S. courtesy of WEtv. The show, a full episode of which can be seen on YouTube, is kind of like American Idol, but we don’t get to see the performances. Average couples—both gay and straight—are introduced, then they go into the box and have sex (“with a little bit of extra pressure,” the host says). Afterward, the couples are grilled by three celebrity panelists, including the popular American sex columnist Dan Savage. \[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCiztXBHKoQ\] The conversations that result are fairly anodyne, though they do get into some specific acts. But the interviews get at themes of emotional intimacy versus physical and honesty about sexual desires. It’s enough to imagine the show getting played in front of a bunch of middle schoolers following a sex-ed class. Who will judge the American Sex Box? Dr. Phil, perhaps, or Slate’s Emily Yoffe, who writes the site’s popular Dear Prudence column. Timothy Ferriss, perhaps? Whoever it is, they better have strong constitutions—conservatives are bound to have a fit over the show. Sex Box’s couples are all happy after getting out of the box (who wouldn’t be?), but if the show is going to represent a true cross-section of American sex, there should probably be some bad encounters in there as well. As one couple notes, sometimes the box just doesn’t measure up: “The best time we had sex was the first time we had sex,” they say. _Republished with permission from_ [_Knowledge@Wharton_](http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/ "undefined")_, the online research and business analysis journal of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania._ The Phenomenon of "Re-Shoring": Companies like GE are bringing manufacturing jobs back from China ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7105647/a-new-chinese-export-jobs/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7105647/a-new-chinese-export-jobs/"},"headline":"A New Chinese Export — Jobs","datePublished":"2012-04-12T12:00:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T02:22:53.997Z","description":"Bucking the decades-old wave of offshoring of manufacturing jobs to China, other parts of Asia and Mexico, GE said it would move jobs back from...","url":"https://time.com/archive/7105647/a-new-chinese-export-jobs/","keywords":["China","GE"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta6350dca37b769cb/698a8c1916d884002ac43f37/ge_factory.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta6350dca37b769cb/698a8c1916d884002ac43f37/ge_factory.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"ge_factory","caption":"Employees at a General Electric Co. production facility work to assemble MRI devices in Beijing, China, on July 22, 2011.","creditText":"Nelson Ching / Bloomberg / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7105647/a-new-chinese-export-jobs/","name":"A New Chinese Export — Jobs"}}]}] ```