The manufacturing industry has been battered a lot by politicians lately, with President Trump claiming that manufacturing jobs have fled to other countries, and Democrats claiming that people who work in manufacturing are blue collar losers, but San Antonio Manufacturers say their industry is thriving, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
In fact, Tom Long, who is the Executive Vice President of the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation, says he has gotten more feelers from manufacturing operations interested in setting up shop in Texas this year than at any time since he has been with the EDF.
"People are starting to look to the United States," he said. "They sell products here, they want to make products here."
Several factors are leading to the Texas manufacturing boom, and Long says chief among them is the fracking boom, which has made natural gas, which is the chief fuel used in factories, far cheaper and far more readily available.
"The costs are there, the availability is there, and moving forward, I think our energy independence is going to make more manufacturers look at San Antonio and South Texas as the place to be."
Other factors leading to what is known as 're-shoring,' or the return of manufacturing jobs to places like Texas include a desire to make products closer to the places where they are sold, to cut out potentially risky transportation costs, and to avoid being at the mercy of sometimes unpredictable foreign governments. Just last month, the Venezuelan government seized a General Motors plant in that country.
Long says manufacturing in the U.S. is also become very high tech, he says today's manufacturing employees need as many advanced tech skills as workers at Google or Microsoft.
He says ironically, robotics, which are seen as killing jobs, are actually helping places like Texas gain jobs. He says the use of robotics in a Texas plant can produce more product that a factory fully staffed with workers in a less tech friendly place like Mexico. That means Texas gets some good, high paying jobs thanks to robotics, rather than none at all.
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