According to recent articles on sites such as CIO.com, some U.S.-based companies are canceling their offshore outsourcing contracts and bringing work back home, a process called backshoring (also called “on-shoring”). Economists are saying this trend is occurring in part to the consumer backlash against offshoring, and believe it will help the U.S. and other foreign economies emerge from the recession much more quickly.
Several major U.S. companies such as Sallie Mae, Delta, Dell and the Home Shopping Network are moving some of the work that they had offshored back home, says Computer World. Some economists are advocating return of overseas work back to the U.S. “not as a protectionist trade policy-but as a strategic move designed to conserve a market (namely, U.S. consumers.)”
The Atlanta Business Chronicle recently reported that Georgia is one of several states seeing its economic prospects improve due to offshoring. Economic development officials say the drivers include decreased savings in moving jobs to China (wages there have increased); increased shipping and transportation costs; and safety and quality issues.
Two companies are opting to bring jobs to Georgia that had been considered for offshoring. Automation giant NCR Corp. (slated to relocate its headquarters to Gwinnett County), is bringing 900 jobs to Columbus, GA, and a subsidiary of Chicken of the Sea, Thai Union Frozen Products PCL, will create 200 jobs in its canning operations in Lyons, GA (located between Macon and Savannah).