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Back in 2015, Microsoft trumpeted the opening of a new factory in Wilsonville, stamping “Made in Portland, Oregon” on each and every huge touch-screen computer it made in the US. The company hired more than 100 people to build Surface Hubs. The Surface Hub is an extremely expensive machine, at ~$22,000, so this obviously wasn’t a high volume product. But Microsoft insisted it could make the economics work.
Now, just two years later, Microsoft has announced that it will close the Wilsonville plant and fire all 124 employees that worked there. Panos Panay, head of Surface development, went to the plant and announced that Microsoft is consolidating its manufacturing and will build the Surface Hub in the same place as its other Surface devices. Microsoft has previously disclosed that it builds its Surface hardware in China, so that’s the assumed location for these new products as well.
The company hasn’t explained, in public or to its Wilsonville employees, why it gave up on domestic manufacturing so quickly and didn’t respond to repeated inquiries for comment. But the only thing surprising about Microsoft’s decision is that it tried to make its computers in the US in the first place.
These layoffs are ironic, arriving even as President Trump heralds “Made in America” week. In reality, virtually all tech manufacturing is now done in East Asian countries like China and Taiwan. For all the emphasis placed on manufacturing jobs and the blue collar workers that have them, US-based manufacturing has shrunk drastically over the past 47 years.
In 1970, manufacturing jobs accounted for 25 percent of all US employment. Today, manufacturing jobs are just 8.5 percent of all non-farm payroll employment. That’s not to say that manufacturing jobs are unimportant. But in the US, employment in this sector peaked in 1979 and has fallen dramatically even since 2000.
The problem with manufacturing in the United States isn’t just a question of wages. It’s also about supply lines, and how easy it is to hire and train qualified employees and source proper components. As The Oregonian reports, the vast outsourcing of manufacturing to foreign countries has made it easier to source components and industrial supplies from China or Vietnam than it is to buy them locally.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Pslytely Psycho on Saturday August 18 2018, @02:20AM (3 children)
"They make so much opioid in China, they're sending it to us -- a lot crossing over our Mexico Boarder. 60-pound sacks flying right over our Boarder Wall."
So you admit the border wall is useless and a waste, and you only want a monument to yourself.
(seriously though, the misspelling makes you look more authentic...)
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday August 18 2018, @03:44AM (2 children)
We have a wall, it's terrible. Huge holes in that one, hundreds of miles of nothing. You don't keep drugs out with nothing. You don't keep crime out with nothing. Need a much better Wall. Congress must fund it -- and eventually, Mexico will pay. Fantastic phone call with new President of Mexico. Very hard to stop 60-pound sacks of drugs flying through the air, that's why our new Wall MUST be transparent. It's for safety. So you can look and, "oh, there's a sack flying at me!" You get out of the way of that sack. Our new Wall will stop the PEOPLE. 100%. So important. We've got so many people coming in. BAD PEOPLE. Every one's a criminal. When they cross our Boarder that way, that makes them criminals. If they weren't already. And the guys picking up the sacks, they can think about, do they want to die? Get shot full of drugs and DIE LIKE A DOG. Like so many of our people. So many shooting up and dieing, very sad. We need death penalty and we need Wall. BUILD THE WALL!!!
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 18 2018, @06:48AM
Do we really need much of a physical wall when sensor technology is this advanced?
Given time, damn near any wall can be breached/undermined/flown over, whatever.
I believe the wall is just about as futile as the DRM Whack-A-Mole that we presently play with the RIAA.
The only people who benefit are the lawyers and coders hired by the MAFIAA
And the people who "pay the price" are the ones who buy the DRM'd stuff.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 18 2018, @02:22PM
Build a wall around D.C. then fill it with water.