Presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney pledge to create jobs, and that will involve bringing home manufacturing jobs from China. But do politicians even offer American businesses what they need to bring jobs back?
Voters in the swing state of New Hampshire have an extra interest in hearing more details about Mr Romney and Mr Obama’s jobs plans.
New Hampshire earned the dubious distinction of losing more jobs to China, per capita, than any other state from 2001-11, according to a new study from the Economic Policy Institute.
Companies like Watts Water Technology helped the state secure that spot.
The company had been making water control valves at a factory in the town of Franklin since 1959, but the company began shifting jobs to China a dozen years ago.
The company didn’t entirely shut things down in New Hampshire, and today, the Franklin factory is once again bustling.
That’s because it has begun to make sense to bring some jobs back home, says operations manager Ken Sargent.
“The cost of labour in China is constantly going up, the fuel to get [the product] here is constantly going up,” he says. “A lot of the benefits of doing business in China have deteriorated.”
And operations are becoming more streamlined in New Hampshire, he says, “which makes it a lot more cost effective to bring the work back to the states”.
( BBC News )
