re: What led to a decline in manufacturing jobs initially?

The plants are moving South to escape unions.
Louisiana and Mississippi are unique as they have a river to cross and a lot of two lane roads which hamper raw materials getting to plants.

A lot of mfg companies like Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia as they done well building nicer hwys leading from rural areas where land cheap to build factories to major hwys.

Biggest reasons some plants left the US.
1. Environmental regulations
- ex China or some other countries they can reuse dirty water to cool steal.
- US you have to treat it which drives up the cost
2. Labor cost is becoming less of an issue as shipping and opportunity lost waiting for shipping containers to come in offset labor cost.
3. Finding labor
- I know one plant mgr that told me finding trained labor who is willing to stick with you is hard.
He needs 1200 full time and 1200 seasonal workers. They moved the plant from Tempe, Az where they competed with hotels for labor during snowbird season to Nogales, Mexico. The Mexican government guarantees them x amount of the to show up. The pay the same as US pay it just they need a large amount of labor $20 to $30 hr benefits vary on which side they work Mexico at the plant or US at the distribution center or parts plant.

FYI, It is interesting if a US worker visit the Mexican plant you have to get an $80 permit.

A lot of plants have been moving from China to US/ Mexican border. Reason is the West Coast ports get backed up so delivery times are unreliable. Mexico has labor and easy to get products shipped across the border back into Texas or Arizona.