snip
I read an article the other day in the Economist that said because the
Chinese production facilities were so new and highly automated that the
labor component was relatively small.
snip
I used to work for a fortune 500 manufacturing company. Our
cost accountants calculated the following average expense
distribution per dollar of sales:
[direct] labor 10%
labor burden 20%
material 20%
material burden 30%
G&A 10%
gross profit remainder

Almost all managerial and engineering efforts were devoted to
reducing direct labor. This company is no longer in business,
and the core product is now made in India on the machines from
the U.S.