I work in supply chain as a buyer for a major manufacturing firm in the west. Throughout the last few months I have been noticing a trend to obvious to ignore. Things are getting better, and fast.
First, I talk to hundreds of vendors/suppliers whom are literally swamped. Sales and customer service reps are inundated by the amount of businesses they have been receiving since the summer. Many plan to hire more people soon, some are building new facilities in the US.
Second, sales at my manufacturing firm have rebounded to levels not seen in 3 years. We are literally doubling are sales numbers over last years (ie. Sept 09 to Sept 10). This is because other firms are doing better throughout the country. The Congress's recent passage of the small business act will soon be spurring investment in facilities and equipment even more.
Third, the company I work for off-shored some of it's operations to China about a decade ago. However, this has not been nearly as profitable as expected. We are now ramping up production inside our US facilities to meet the increasing demand. Instead of building more facilities outside the US, we are planning on building new ones here and hiring American workers to produce our goods.
Fourth, the company's leadership are hardcore conservatives railing against the Democrat's policy accomplishments. However, at a company meeting just days ago the CEO announced our major turn around. It took everything I had not to ask him if Obama's policies had anything to do with this recovery (since we are getting breaks on depreciation and tax savings on new equipment and plants). Pay freezes have been unfrozen and new hiring has begun.
Things are getting better, and everywhere. The jobless recovery is soon to end as these companies who are swamped beyond their reduced capacity need to rehire and expand their capabilities. This isn't just me, it's hundreds of vendors from all sorts of manufacturing and service firms throughout the country.
This may be all anecdotal, but it is first hand and stretches across many different industries. American manufacturing is rebounding and this time off-shoring is become much less attractive to executives. If manufacturing is doing better, then the rest of the economy is soon to follow. 2011 and 2012 will be much kinder to the American worker, and that's because beginning in 2006 Democrats began to implement economic policies that actually work.