Since the start of 2012, manufacturing jobs once outsourced overseas have been returning to America. Some economic experts, however, are correctly seeing past the simple good news and into the complexities of the situation. The American workplace is not the same place it was when it grew its manufacturing base in the second half of the 20th century. The cost of operating large facilities is what initially drove those jobs away, and it remains as burdensome now.
It’s a better business decision for manufacturers to stay focused on producing goods at a manageable scale and then hire different companies to take care of logistics needs like assembly, fulfillment, packaging, shipping, and other services. Ohio economist Daniel Meges put it succinctly in the Columbus Dispatch article we referenced yesterday when he said, “The trick will be for smaller, more-nimble manufacturers… to work their way into the supply chains.”
Filling individual niches in the supply chain is where contract labor performed by people with disabilities can play a huge role in sustaining American businesses. A case in point is Lizbeth Lane Gourmet Cuisine in Pennsylvania. Michael Dernoga and Ridgely Francisco started the company in 2009 after the shrinking economy cost them employment in their respective professions of healthcare management and advertising. Instead of competing with younger candidates for fewer jobs, they turned their “foodie” passion into a entrepreneurial venture that produces simmer sauces for easy home-cooked meals.
Ryan Richards traced the two friends’ journey for Main Line Media News, an online property serving the suburban population around Philadelphia. Dernoga and Francisco’s love of cooking did not shield them from having to cope with the trials and tribulations of operating a business. To get their products to market, Richards writes that Lizbeth Lane partnered with a company that employs people with disabilities to “take care of the fulfillment end of the business such as labeling and packaging bottles and processing e-mail orders.” The labor contract enables them to focus on the part of the business they love while also achieving their company’s social mission.
Contract labor opportunities occur on larger scales as well. Just across the Hudson River from Wall Street, a Jersey City, New Jersey, firm, Hudson Community Enterprise, employs 400 people with disabilities across three business divisions providing document solutions from shredding to digital scanning. Andrew Steadman’s article in The Jersey Journal reports the company’s sales average $5 million annually, and has people with disabilities earning competitive wages in entry-level positions and as managers.
The article’s accompanying photo by Reena Rose Sibayan depicts a very professionally dressed Lisa Castro, sitting at her desk working with a scanner and computer. The company is expanding to Newark and Trenton, according to Steadman, meaning more jobs for people with disabilities in this niche service that helps keep American industries moving.
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Image by BothereedByBees (Peter Shanks), used under its Creative Commons license.