Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn may not be coming to Wisconsin after all. In one of the most touted deals of the Trump administration, Foxconn had previously pledged to hire up to 13,000 people in Wisconsin, many of them employed in manufacturing. Along the way, Foxconn said they’d invest as much as $10 billion.
If the original deal had gone through, the Foxconn plant would have assembled large TV screens and other high-end electronics. Foxconn claims, however, that changes in the global market over the past few years makes those plans impossible. Now, Foxconn’s plans are in doubt and far behind schedule.
Wisconsin was enticing Foxconn with up to $4 billion in tax incentives and infrastructure improvements. In exchange, Foxconn pledged to build what would have been a 20-million-square-feet manufacturing facility. Wisconsin has already been investing in some infrastructure upgrades. Only now, it turns out that the manufacturing plant almost certainly isn’t coming.
Instead, Foxconn may build a technology hub in Wisconsin. While the technology hub would create jobs, roughly three-quarters of them would be in research and development, design, and other skilled positions. The promised blue-collared manufacturing jobs, on the other hand, likely aren’t coming, although some may be added at smaller- scale assembly and packaging plants.
Problem is, workers with tech skills in America aren’t struggling as hard to find jobs. Blue collar workers, on the other hand, have taken a huge hit. Back in the late 1990s, over 17 million people were employed in manufacturing. Now, less than 13 million are.
Foxconn has come on record, stating that they still plan to add 13,000 jobs. How a technology hub will accomplish that, however, remains unclear. Even Apple’s humongous Apple Park headquarters, which handles much of the company’s R&D, design, and similar activities, is home to just 13,000 workers.
GOP Agenda Takes a Hit
The Foxconn deal was one of the centerpiece’s of former Republican Governor Scott Walker’s agenda. Walker has drawn criticism in Wisconsin for weakening unions, canceling a high-speed rail project, and rejecting Medicaid expansion all while handing out billions in incentives to companies.
Democrats have long criticized the Foxconn deal as corporate welfare. Still, Democratic Governor Tony Evers had pledged to uphold Wisconsin’s end of the deal. Even so, Foxconn has apparently decided that it wasn’t worth it to keep up their end of the bargain. It’s unclear if Wisconsin will extend the generous benefits promised for an innovation hub.
For the Trump administration, Foxconn’s change of plans is a major blow. Trump swept into office promising to revive the American manufacturing sector. Turns out, that’s easier said than done. Despite millions, even billions of dollars in incentives, it’s proving hard to attract and retain manufacturing companies.
The Foxconn pullout wasn’t the first setback. Despite providing Carrier with millions of dollars in incentives to keep manufacturing lines open in Indiana, the company has laid off roughly 500 of its 1,600 workers.
The Carrier deal was another widely touted effort to bolster manufacturing jobs in the United States, but the company still found it cheaper to move some operations to Mexico. Fact is, as hard as President Trump might try, it may not be possible to bring back blue-collar manufacturing jobs. Apparently, even billions of dollars worth of incentives aren’t enough. So what then would be?
