[dwpdwpdwpdwpdwp]

I work for an global company in the industrial automation space. Not only is there is a major effort underway to offshore jobs and manufacturing from the US, but our customers around the world are pulling way back on capital expenditures, citing US policy uncertainties as a primary reason.

[hshdhdhj4444]

Yup, unfortunately my own job is at risk as our company has, if not explicitly at least in action, essentially ended technical hiring in the U.S.

They’re basically downsizing the technical sides through attrition while hiring heavily abroad.

[gehwartzen]

Exactly what’s happening at my company

[FuriouslyAdrift]

I work for a regional manufacturing company in the US and we have been booming since COVID (nearly doubling every year) and have not seen a slow down.

Manufacturing firms seem to be doing really well, here (midwest US).

[yndoendo]

This is all dependent on the company owners.

A multi-million dollar company I help start, in the Midwest USA, had manufacturing, customer service, R&D, and shipping all in the same state. After being bought by Texas VCs, everything moved out of the area. They don't want to run and build a business, they want to make X millions in Y years.

To do this, manufacturing moved to South Korea, customer service to some Asian country, slashed R&D by removing QA, and shipped the other jobs to a more _cost effect state_ not in the Midwest. Everyone that had institutional knowledge was fired to reduce cost of employee salaries.

Note you want QA because it is a life safety solution. Speaking with former colleagues, the quality of the solution went down hill while the price kept rising.

In my current company, all assembly jobs were removed from in-state and shipped to a more _cost effect state_ before the end of 2025. This also affects the end user because I can no longer go to assembly and test software changes or custom hardware changes before the product ships.

Jobs are not being lost because of unskilled people, they are being lost to help the rich get richer.

[Glawen]

> Jobs are not being lost because of unskilled people, they are being lost to help the rich get richer.

Indeed, imagine you're part of the wealthy elite. What you want is to be able to move your cash around the world, chasing cash growth. You also want yourself to be able to travel wherever you wish with your Gulfstream. Why would they care about local midwest job growth ?

Solutions exist, but it's too communist.

[elevation]

You don't have to be communist, you just have to be selective about the capitalists you engage with.

An business mentor of mine bootstrapped a highly profitable enterprise software company, growing it to 400 employees. When it was time to sell/retire, he vetted buyers not just for the money they could offer, but for the impact they would have on his team and community. He accepted an offer from a conservatively-run competitor and proudly told me that 5 years later, 90% of the original staff were still happily employed with the new owner.

These arrangements are simply not an option if you're beholden to VC, or entertain offers from Private Equity. You cannot preserve what you do not own.

[DANmode]

Where are your downstream clients?

[FuriouslyAdrift]

All over the Midwest with some random ones all over the US. Tesla, Toyoda, and ThyssenKrupp are clients, for example.

[javiramos]

What industry?

[FuriouslyAdrift]

Packaging. Boxes, shippers, pallets, parts transports for use within automotive and other factories, etc. Very little direct to consumer or display stuff.

Analysts use packaging companies as a canary for manufacturing in general.

[javiramos]

Interesting! I am familiar with this space as we developed a software tool [0] to optimize packaging based on 3D packing technology we developed. If it is relevant to you, happy to chat!

[0] https://www.pack-studio.com/

[FuriouslyAdrift]

We currently use ArtiosCAD and TOPS pro for load and pallet optimization. I'll check out your software and forward over to the people-that-sign-the-checks.