Labor has always been an important topic, but it’s becoming more and more prevalent with the state of the economy and the fact that wages in China are continuing to rapidly increase. With the constant changing of the markets aligning your long term real estate decisions with the best overall markets is critical to your long-term success.
With all the labor uncertainty, this then causes us to question how important labor is to real estate decisions. Should we be basing our decisions on where the people are or should we be focused on other factors like flexibility and customer service? Maybe we should target more markets and locations instead of fewer so that we are hedged against changes? Ultimately though, we must think critically about what is important. In the recent past, playing the labor market game has led to success for many organizations, but how much longer can this go on?
Step back and reposition your strategy around real estate location decisions – whether for manufacturing, distribution or general office functions. Maybe the way you are looking at markets isn’t right any more.