In the context of last week’s surprisingly positive job numbers (so surprising in fact that President Obama had to do a last minute rewrite to his speech Friday), two news stories have shared additional good news for US manufacturing. They’re largely anecdotal evidence, but perhaps they show a return of manufacturing jobs to the US for a number of reasons, including hedging against currency fluctuations and utilization of manufacturing capacity.

First, there was news that Daimler AG is moving some production of US bound Mercedes C-class cars from Germany to Alabama. Citing currency fluctuations as the key driver, Daimler officials plan to shift 20% of the production of their most popular model in the US to this Southern US state that is gaining traction in the automotive manufacturing industry. Interesting, the NPR report also points out that Alabama is a “right to work” state that requires far less vacation and other benefits than the 1,800 Stuttgart employees who are losing their jobs enjoyed.

The second story covered the emerging trend of jobs returning to historic manufacturing counties in the US.  The AP article focuses on the furniture industry in western North Carolina. The industry has seen a drastic turn-around in the last 6 months, with companies going from layoffs to aggressive hiring to keep pace with demand. In fact, it’s that demand and the lack of a ramped up workforce that proves to be the underlying lesson of the article. Were companies too quick to shed jobs in the last 18 months? Can they ramp up quickly enough or will their customers see shortages in their supplier’s capacity? And is that excess capacity in manufacturing centers enough to draw renewed hiring from domestic, foreign and globally based companies?

These stories probably stir up more questions than answers about the future of manufacturing in the US. For starters, are these just a nice anecdotal case (Daimler) and a statistical blip (manufacturing jobs) rather than the start of a strong, lasting trend? Will the new normal - in regards to global risk from currency fluctuations, shipping/commodity costs, and consumer demand - lead to more jobs being “onshored” to the US and other countries that had fallen out of favor for low-cost countries in recent years? And if we do see more manufacturing jobs in the US, will they last?

What do you think? Where are we headed? Insights, anecdotes and questions are welcome in the comments (leave them anonymously if you must).

Justin Fogarty is Managing Editor of Supply Excellence. For any questions or feedback on the blog or its contributors, Justin can be reached at jfogarty[at]ariba.com.