Student who worked in Chinese iPhone factory explains why manufacturing jobs aren't coming back to..

[steve2470]

Student who worked in Chinese iPhone factory explains why manufacturing jobs aren't coming back to the U.S.

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/30/iphone-factory-observer-why-trump-cant-bring-manufacturing-jobs-back.html

(yes it's CNBC but still informative)

Why it can't happen here

Now that he's seen how a Chinese iPhone factory operates, Zeng doesn't believe that Apple or other companies will be able to build competitive factories in the U.S., no matter what politicians want them to do.

"The first thing I can think of from a labor perspective is that the wages are unacceptable for American workers. So, in the factories, I was getting paid about 3100 yuan, or $450, per month. I don't think American workers can accept those kind of wages based on living conditions and prices here," Zeng said.

"Even if they relocate factories to the U.S. they'd replace workers with robots," Zeng said. He said Pegatron already uses robots to apply cameras to iPhones, and to drop batteries into the devices. Robots, Zeng said, are more precise than human workers, and precision is particularly important for those two components.

The only reason human labor is still used, he believes, is because it's cheaper in some cases.