Is Trump right?

[gryffron]

It's been a mystery to me over the past 20 years why globalisation hasn't taken off far more than it has. Maybe the simple answer is that it would have caused too much political turmoil in developed economies if virtually all unskilled workers had been replaced by Far East workers.

I don't think that's the reason. There is a perception amongst managers, probably justified, that managing a foreign move and workforce is just too difficult. I know of one company which outsourced its IT to India, but despite the fact their technical skills were excellent, the U.K. Staff were unable to communicate their requirements to the Indian programmers. The Indians were not familiar with the uk processes they were supposed to be automating. It all broke down and they eventually brought the jobs back to U.K. Same with setting up a factory in asia. It's a difficult task with different languages and business culture. The solution of course would be to hire foreign bosses, but what boss I say going to suggest outsourcing their own role?

Gryff

[gadgetmind]

Anecdotally - mostly by talking to other factory managers in my area of work - the average skilled Chinese factory worker is now on $7k/yr and the average skilled Chinese design engineer is now on $40k/yr and in some areas (embedded processors, good mechanical designers) is on $70k-$80k/yr.

I don't (directly) employ any Chinese factory workers (but do have goods manufactured in China) so can't comment on the first number, but I do directly employ a number of engineers in China and agree with your other two numbers. China is no longer a low cost place to employ skilled people and we find that India and Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Serbia, even Poland, etc.) are more cost effective.

Note that our graduate starting salaries in the UK (even in the grim North) are £30kpa so we are after the best people we can get.

[gadgetmind]

There is a perception amongst managers, probably justified, that managing a foreign move and workforce is just too difficult. I know of one company which outsourced its IT to India, but despite the fact their technical skills were excellent, the U.K. Staff were unable to communicate their requirements to the Indian programmers.

It's difficult but it's not too difficult. The team under me is multi-disciplinary, numbers 55 people, is spread across four continents and they are paid in eight currencies. Yes, it's a bit of a handful, but I'm a manager and it's what I'm paid to do.

I recently passed my team in India onto someone else (I'm on "final approach" to retirement) but they were great as long as well managed. Specify that you wanted a turd delivering and you'll get a very highly-polished turd!