Production migration: do the numbers add up?(Industry Overview)

The continuing economic downturn has shaken the North American electronics assembly industry, leaving in its wake massive plant closings and layoffs. Many lines and assembly contracts have moved overseas, and the generally accepted cause for this is the high cost of domestic labor. Jim McElroy, executive director of NEMI (National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative) confirms this. "The migration (of electronics assembly) to China is incredible in its speed and intensity. We've seen migrations before: in the 1980s it was Japan, then to Mexico and Eastern Europe in the 1990s. Now