The growing shift of low-skilled manufacturing jobs from the United States to Mexican border cities is not a threat to American employment because it will help create new markets for products according to a study released today. Richard Bolin director of the Flagstaff Institute of Arizona which studies international trade issues said the United States needs to encourage the expansion of manufacturing in developing countries so that those nations can become consumers of more U.S. goods. His study was commissioned by the border city of McAllen Texas for presentation to the International Trade Commission which is gathering information for a report to Congress on what changes may be needed in the U.S. tariff codes to prevent the loss of jobs and industry. McAllen and other Texas border cities have benefitted from a trend among U.S. companies to build twin plants that employ factory workers on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. More than 700 manufacturers are taking advantage of lenient tax codes that allow U.S. companies to bring raw goods into Mexico for assembly by low-skilled workers into products that are completed by U.S. workers at a nearby sister plant. Bolin said his research indicated that the shift in low-paying jobs across the border reflected changing demographics of the U.S. workforce. In the post-baby boom era fewer workers will be available to fill these low-skill jobs -- and these workers will be better educated than prior generations Bolin told reporters in McAllen. The jobs in low-tech industries that are being exported to other countries are for the most part jobs that we may not be able to fill in the future. U.S. employment in less-skilled manufacturing jobs plunged by more than 900000 between 1977 and 1982 largely due to the transfer of jobs outside U.S. borders he said. American employment in high-tech industries increased by 634000 during the same period he said. But high-tech industries those in which engineers make up more than six percent of the workforce pay higher wages and generate more U.S. exports than low-tech businesses he said.
STUDY SAYS U.S. EMPLOYMENT NOT JEOPARDIZED BY BORDER PLANTS