It will accelerate the reshoring of jobs to big economies, aided by greater robot adoption to lower costs As the covid-19 pandemic escalates, the risks inherent in global supply chains are more apparent than ever.
Rather than await a return to business as usual, with manufacturing activities concentrated in countries where labour is cheap and plentiful, advanced-economy companies are shifting their focus to the lowest-wage workers of all: robots.
Firms began relocating production to low-wage countries in the early 1990s, aided by the fall of the Iron Curtain, China’s global integration and eventual accession to the World Trade Organization, and the rise of containerization.