On Wednesday, January 11, 2012, President Obama and Vice President Biden will host an “Insourcing American Jobs” forum at the White House focused on the increasing trend of companies choosing to “insource” jobs and invest in growing in the United States.
As part of the “Insourcing American Jobs” forum, the President will meet with business leaders, as well as experts on the topic, to discuss why it’s competitive to locate in the United States and what more can be done to work with companies to take similar steps to insource American jobs. Following the meeting, the President will deliver remarks to a group that will include leaders from the government and the private sector that are taking steps to encourage companies to insource and invest in America. In the afternoon, Cabinet officials will host panel discussions with both small and large businesses and experts on insourcing and investing in America.
Over a dozen large and small businesses that have made decisions to bring jobs to the United States and to increase their investments here will attend the forum. Attendees include:
• Master Lock: Master Lock is the world’s largest manufacturer of padlocks and related security products. Since mid-2010, Master Lock has returned approximately 100 jobs back to Milwaukee, WI that had previously been off-shored. The decision to bring these jobs back was partially motivated by economic reasons related to increasingly higher labor and logistics costs in Asia, and further, ongoing labor availability challenges especially in the coastal areas of China, which have negatively impacted continuity in supply to its key customers. Master Lock plans to continue bringing jobs back to Wisconsin, citing a more competitive overall cost structure, greater control, and the ability to provide better service to its customers.
• Lincolnton Furniture: Lincolnton Furniture, a small specialty furniture maker opening in North Carolina, is adding 130 new jobs and re-starting operations at a once vacant plant. Bruce Cochrane, the current owner and CEO, comes from a family that manufactured furniture in North Carolina. The family business was sold and eventually the new owners moved manufacturing to China. Bruce worked as a consultant in Asia for twelve years, importing furniture to the US. Two years ago, he decided the time was right to start his own furniture company back in the US, in North Carolina, in the same plant his family once ran. He recently opened operations and is adding 130 jobs to the area.
• GalaxE Solutions: GalaxE.Solutions was established in 1990 and specializes in custom software application development for Fortune 50 corporations, with a particular focus on health care. A little over a year ago the company created the “Outsource To Detroit” program that is a model for repatriating jobs back to the United States. Key benefits include complex, quality solutions, geographic proximity to U.S. customers, cost efficiencies, and elimination of linguistic issues. GalaxE.Solutions opened operations in Detroit in 2010 and, with 150 professionals on board, is well on its way to its goal of hiring 500 IT specialists. The firm is also working with the area’s universities and community colleges to train and retrain IT professionals for the future.
• DuPont: As part of broad investments the company is making across its portfolio, DuPont started up a new $500 million plant last year to produce Kevlar anti-ballistic fiber near Charleston, South Carolina, that created over 500 construction and 135 full time jobs. The company has made a recent $150 million investment in an expansion of its photovoltaic film production in Circleville, Ohio creating over 70 jobs, and is investing some $150 million to expand agricultural research in Iowa, Pennsylvania and Delaware creating over 500 jobs.