How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work is an article that was in the New York Times this past Sunday (1/22/12). As most Americans have become acutely aware, the level of manufacturing in this country continues to decline and many American companies, Apple included, now manufacture the bulk of their products overseas. China in particular has become a hotbed location for the assembly of consumer electronics goods. The following is a quote which basically sums up the article.
"Another critical advantage for Apple was that China provided engineers at a scale the United States could not match. Apple’s executives had estimated that about 8,700 industrial engineers were needed to oversee and guide the 200,000 assembly-line workers eventually involved in manufacturing iPhones. The company’s analysts had forecast it would take as long as nine months to find that many qualified engineers in the United States. In China, it took 15 days."
As a young engineer in this country it is always discouraging to read and hear of jobs being sent overseas, but unfortunately engineering is not revered as a glamorous major despite the fact that jobs in math and science are higher paying and more readily available.
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