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Since he started on the campaign trail in 2015, Donald Trump has made one of his primary goals to bring back manufacturing jobs from China. Now the president-elect is eyeing tariffs on Chinese imports and proposing initiatives to boost American manufacturing. China manufacturing But can he really draw manufacturing jobs from China? Experts say most jobs can’t return to American factories because they’ve been taken over by automation and technology, not Chinese workers. While the manufacturing sector has been growing and is estimated to add 3.5 million jobs over the next decade, these jobs are quite different from the unskilled positions of the past. Most manufacturing jobs lost over the past couple of decades have been due to technology. A study by the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University said that 85% of the 5.6 million job losses between 2000 and 2010 were attributed to automation rather than international trade. Because manufacturers have leveraged technology to do more with less, they’ve been able to increase output with fewer people. Robotics, efficiency improvements, data analytics, and new processes have eliminated millions of positions. “Automation has transformed the American factory, rendering millions of low-skilled jobs redundant. Fast-spreading technologies like robotics and 3D printing will exacerbate the trend.” “Automation has transformed the American factory, rendering millions of low-skilled jobs redundant,” Mireya Solis, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told the Financial Times. “Fast-spreading technologies like robotics and 3D printing will exacerbate the trend.” Nevertheless, a flood of Chinese imports have indirectly eliminated jobs by reducing demand for American products. A study published in The Journal of Labor Economics did find, however, that the U.S. lost at least 2 million jobs between 1999 and 2011 because of a surge in Chinese imports. But even if China blinked out of […]