Off The Hook™ Blog

Montauk Tackle Apparel is Made in the U.S.A. and it’s the perfect gift idea this holiday season. For more great Made in America gift ideas, go here.

Chris Fischer talks about Ocearch and how the power of the brand helps create awareness for ocean conservation.

He is wearing one of our Ocean Collection Performance Fishing Shirts.

Caught by Erin Flynn and Capt. Jeff Hotsky

Sarah Muraki from Janesville, WI

Despite living in Wisconsin and being a girl, Sarah has a passion for fishing. She said it was her dream to catch a sailfish. Her brother didn’t care for fishing and didnt even come on the boat. He stayed at the resort with his mom.

Sarah accomplished her goal and caught a beautiful sailfish.

Below are some other good entries:

U.S. exports hit a record $173 billion in March, up 15% from a year-ago and 37% from 2009. The good times for “Made in America” are just getting started, according to a new study from The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

In fact, BCG predicts 2015 will be a tipping point of sorts, when global manufacturers will view the U.S. as equal to if not better-than China.

Reasons why:

• Rising wages in China plus the strengthening yuan are eroding China’s cost advantage vs. the U.S.
• America’s “very productive, motivated and flexible workforce” is attractive to employers and all aspects of U.S. society — including unions and state governments — are “focused on creating jobs.”
• Intangibles such as the length of the supply chain and the challenges of communicating over multiple time zones work to the advantage of the U.S. (The same is true of Mexico, which BCG says is “also poised to benefit as a low-cost alternative” to China.)

Original Yahoo Finance Article

General Electric appliance plant is being renovated to begin producing refrigerators and water heaters now being made overseas. Hiring of about 1,300 union-represented workers is due to begin this fall.

A technical support call center for computer back-up firm Carbonite will start taking calls this summer in Lewiston, Maine. By the end of this year, 150 jobs that had been located in India will be shifted to there, with another 100 jobs expected to be added next year.

NCR has hired about 500 workers to build ATM machines and self-service checkout systems at a Columbus, GA plant. It plans to add another 370 jobs by 2014, building products that were formerly produced at plants in China, Hungary and Brazil.

NCR looked at the cost of shipping products, as well as the need to have the plant close to the engineering staff and customers in order to constantly improve the machines, it decided to build the Georgia plant.

Greater quality was the major factor cited by Carbonite for moving back jobs to the U.S. as well. The company’s call center in New Delhi, India was having turnover of 100% or more each year. Meanwhile, turnover in its Boston call center was in the single digits which allowed the Boston call center to provide much better service and customer satisfaction.

For GE, the decision to reopen the Louisville plant, which had been closed for decades, was based on the fact that it’s no longer as expensive to hire more workers in the U.S. When you factor in currency fluctuations and rising wages in emerging markets, the United States is becoming a lot more attractive.

Chinese labor costs are rising about 15% to 20% a year. That makes producing goods in China not nearly as cheap as it used to be. For many manufacturers, that narrowing is enough to tip the balance back to U.S. plants.

Still, some think the number of jobs coming back to the U.S. will remain relatively small.

Original CNN Article