CHICAGO—Manufacturing has undergone several changes since the advent of the recession, and those changes could end up benefitting many areas once considered off the beaten path. At a time when many businesses are flocking to the nation's downtown cores, manufacturers are headed in the opposite direction.
“The first and most important thing to these companies is access to low- and no-skilled labor,” Thomas Boyle, Chicago-based principal with Transwestern, tells GlobeSt.com, especially ones that need seasonal labor. “Not having that access hurts their operating expenses.”
But that access to labor has to be coupled with affordable land costs, affordable energy, and great transportation networks that can move products from the manufacturing site to the customers, and that combination only exists in certain pockets of the Chicago metro area and the greater Midwest, adds the site selection expert.
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
