North Carolina State Press

Asheville Citizen-Times

Compiled by Mark Barrett
December 21, 2005 6:00 am

N.C. 10th in ‘insourcing’ jobs

WASHINGTON — The 204,600 North Carolinians working for United States subsidiaries of foreign companies gives the state the 10th largest number of “insourcing” jobs in the country, according to an industry group.

The total amounts to 6.3 percent of all private sector workers in the state, the Organization for International Investment said in releasing calculations based on U.S. Department of Commerce figures recently. The organization represents U.S. subsidiaries of foreign firms.

The organization said 83,900 of the employees, or 41 percent, are in the manufacturing sector.

Winston-Salem Journal

Foreign companies bring jobs to state
North Carolina ranks among the leaders for 'insourcing' jobs, report says

By Richard Craver
Thursday, December 15, 2005

President Bush may have struck a chord when he used "insourcing" to describe the threefold increase in jobs to nearly 1,000 at Deere-Hitachi Construction Machinery Corp. during his Dec. 5 visit to Kernersville.

But the jobs created by international companies in North Carolina and the Triad have been a significant, and typically good-paying, employment factor for several years.

A report issued yesterday by the Organization for International Investment, based in Washington, found that U.S. subsidiaries of international companies have created nearly 5.3 million U.S. jobs.

North Carolina was ranked 10th in the country at 204,600 jobs on Aug. 31. The manufacturing sector accounts for 41 percent of those jobs, or 83,900. The state is 11th in population at 8.5 million in 2004, according to 2004 data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

"'Insourcing' jobs continue to be an integral part of the U.S. economy, with one out of every 16 jobs in North Carolina belonging to the U.S. operations of foreign companies," the report said.

Deere & Co. and Hitachi Construction Machinery Co. formed the local company in 1988 to produce heavy excavation equipment for the North American market.

"This plant is actually 'insourcing.'" Bush said. "Over the past four years, this factory has taken on production that used to be done in Japan and Mexico."

Economists said what makes the president's phrase stand out is that the flip side of insourcing - outsourcing - has been particularly painful in many parts of the Triad and state.

Tens of thousands of North Carolina jobs, particularly in the furniture and textile industries, have been cut since 2000 as companies have sent production offshore in pursuit of lower labor costs.

"People are worried about outsourcing, so referring to insourcing is a politically relevant way of telling people that our economy and our jobs are not all going offshore," said Dan Fogel, the dean of the Charlotte programs for the Babcock Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest University.

"The Triad and North Carolina attract foreign companies because of the lower cost of living and doing business, the quality of the work force and being centrally located on the East Coast," Fogel said.

There are at least 214 international companies that have operations in the Triad, according to the Piedmont Triad Partnership. Many of the companies are in Guilford County because of the presence of the International Home Furnishings Market in High Point.

"There's a tremendous diversity in the international business mix in the Triad," said Don Kirkman, the president of the Piedmont Triad Partnership.

Among the companies are: Thomas Built Buses, the DaimlerChrysler AG (Germany) division in High Point; Banner Pharmacaps (Netherlands) in High Point; Volvo Trucks North America Inc. (Sweden) in Greensboro; Unilin Flooring NC LLC (Belgium) in Thomasville; Konica Manufacturing USA Inc. (Japan) in Guilford County; A.F.G. Wipes Inc. (Israel) in Reidsville; and Piedmont Concrete Co. (United Kingdom) in Davidson and Forsyth counties.

Economists said that the biggest question for international job creation in North Carolina is when will Chinese companies act on those same business opportunities as the Chinese government tries to create jobs for a work force of nearly 1 billion people.

The main Chinese presence in the Triad involves furniture-market showrooms and furniture distribution centers.

The most prominent Chinese employer in the state is Lenovo Group Ltd., which bought the IBM Corp. personal-computer division that is based in Research Triangle Park.

Fogel said that it could be 20 years before Chinese companies invest in major U.S. operations.

"But there's no doubt in my mind that it will happen because it's more cost-effective to build product for the U.S. market in the U.S.," he said. "And a job is a job, whether you're working for a U.S. company or foreign company."

Charlotte Business Journal

N.C. 10th in nation for insourced jobs

December 14, 2005

North Carolina ranks 10th in the United States for the number of workers employed by subsidiaries of foreign-based companies.

Statistics released by the U.S. Department of Commerce indicate North Carolina has 204,600 workers whose jobs have been insourced, or who are employed by subsidiaries of companies with headquarters located abroad.

Forty-one percent of the state's insourced jobs -- or 83,000 employees -- are in the manufacturing sector.

Among all private-sector jobs in the state, 6.3 percent are insourced, the statistics show.