Creating a global labour market: the opportunities and challenges of outsourcing and reshoring

The classification of who benefits or loses from globalization is no longer based on the sector in which one works or the skill group a person belongs to.
An increasing number of workers are experiencing global competition for their jobs as there is a global convergence in the international division of labour. This is due to improved educational levels and technological capacities in developing countries, and new technological developments, like the digitization of work.
Higher labour costs in the emerging economies of Asia, higher international transportation costs, and concerns about relying on faraway places for the delivery of goods are leading to a return of factory production to Europe, but particularly back to the United States.
Jobs will be created by such ‘reshoring’; however this ‘manufacturing renaissance’ results in less jobs and lower wages due to automation and continuing global competition.
As competition is experienced more at the individual level, interventions also need to be more tailor-made to the needs of individual workers rather than to sectoral policies.