I think a lot of manufacturing will return to the us to save shipping costs and add goodwill, but it will be done mostly by robots, so it won’t really be much of a jobs issue.
As it stands now your car is 90% built by robots. That iconic image of mobs of guys with wrenches standing along Henry Ford’s assembly line just isn’t reality anymore.
Shipping costs...it's the shipping costs from China.
I hope companies understand that the USA is leaving the Postal Union on 10/17/2019
Following the Trump letter to the Postal Union on 10/17/2018 giving a 1 year notice
That means that China will no longer have "developing nation" status for low cost postage to USA.
“it will be done mostly by robots, so it won’t really be much of a jobs issue.”
Per unit of output, the number of jobs will plummet. But despite the higher productivity, the USA can get a bigger slice of those jobs that remain - raising domestic corporate profits and tax revenue.
When the jobs are here, the supply chain grows around them, bringing more varied jobs. The wealth from those workers, pays in turn for a richer support chain of jobs in the community - restaurants, dry cleaners, entertainment, etc.
Just like we don’t need big typing pools to get documents created anymore, factories will become less and less large groups of people - but every one of those jobs will produce greater value to the economy.
I have had the pleasure of witnessing several manufacturing job’s return to the US. Using new robotics, i have seen several young entrepreneurs start to supply custom , performance enhanced car parts from their 3D robotic printers. Those jobs are coming back, but not to factories like they used to be in. Most of them i have seen are small businesses using cutting edge technology.
Vietnam, India, Indonesia and Bangladesh
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That is still preferable to China.
China is an enemy.