This topic is quite controversial. Certainly I prefer to keep jobs in the U.S. and work to retain and expand businesses in Ohio. We cheer when a company comes back to the States. Quality control is a big reason why businesses return, but there are other reasons too. Here, I would like to focus on why businesses choose to go overseas in the first place.
Labor costs would be on everyone's list. What about long term labor pool? Will there be enough people to fill the needs of the company over several generations? I thought of birth rate as an answer and found this website: (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2127rank.html): the Central Intelligence Agency calculates 223 countries' total fertility rates, which is different than the birth rate. They feel it is a more accurate representation. The country at the top of the list is Niger with a rate of 7.60 and it takes 64 countries to get to a fertility rate of 3.0 which is Bolivia. The closest to an even replacement is country # 129, The Bahamas with a 1.99 fertility rate. Macau is last with a .92. Of particular note, India is 2.62; Mexico is 2.29. United States is 2.06; Canada is 1.58; China is 1.54; and Japan is 1.21. I realize many of the countries that appear first on the list may have higher mortality rates due to their circumstances, but that is not part of the discussion here.
I had theorized that perhaps our companies had projected a consistent labor force in foreign countries by looking at these stats. I was surprised to see that China's rate was below ours. It must be that their country is just so big to begin with that they can have the necessary workforce for several generations to come. Another reason may be that fertility rate/birth rate does not play a role. But Japan is concerned about their situation-- they will not have the workforce to sustain their economy and have already strategized/implemented action plans for their future. I would be interested in your thoughts.
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Here are the websites I found:
As noted above--https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2127rank.html
This one lists birth rates, highest to lowest:
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/peo_bir_rat-people-birth-rate
This one also lists birth rates, but has the countries in alphabetical order:
http://www.ed-u.com/birth-rates.htm
Though they don't always agree or list the same countries, they all agree that Niger tops their lists.
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