Does Reshoring Generate Employment? A Study on Services Reshoring and Its Intra- and Inter-Sectoral Components

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to deepen the analysis of services reshoring in the Spanish services sector, both as a whole and for its constituent elements, examining both intra- and inter-sectoral components. Likewise, it analyzes the impact of this strategy on employment in the services sector, also differentiating between broad reshoring, intra-sectoral reshoring and inter-sectoral reshoring. The data used come from the Input-Output Tables of the Spanish National Accounts published since 2000. The results show Spanish service companies significantly reduced their contracting of activities abroad between 2008 and 2010, substituting foreign intermediate services for domestic services. This process of reshoring is observed with greater intensity in inputs of the same sector. However, since 2010 Spanish service companies have slightly increased their contracting of foreign services per unit of output, adopting new services offshoring strategies, although to a lesser extent than in the period prior to the recession. In the analysis of the effect of reshoring on services employment can be concluded that services reshoring has not generated employment in the Spanish service sector.