The words “Designed and Manufactured in the U.S.A.” adorn the back of the Google’s new home media device. Google’s choice (or experiment, really) of building the player in the United States is one that may or many not set a precedent.

Reporting for The New York Times, John Markoff says:

The project will be closely watched by other electronics companies. It has become accepted wisdom that consumer electronics products can no longer be made in the United States... Since the 1990s, one American company after another…shifted to contract manufacturers in Shenzhen and elsewhere in China. Now that trend may be showing early signs of reversing."

While Google isn’t telling where exactly the device is being manufactured, giving any insight on the source(s) of the machine’s parts, or explaining the reasoning, it seems obvious the decision was a pointed one.

The Alliance for American Manufacturing’s (AAM) Manufacture This blog reported Monday on the new trend of small manufacturers bringing jobs back to the United States. While Google is hardly a small manufacturer, it’s possible that this decision was based on some of the same factors.

As we reported: 

Manufacturers cited a variety of reasons for bringing their jobs back to the U.S.: shipping costs, logistics of dealing with a 12-hour time difference, communication issues, and having to deal with products getting caught up in customs.”

Regardless of the reasons, a shifting jobs tide could mean very big things for employment in the United States. Markoff interviewed Harold L. Sirkin, the managing director of Boston Consulting Group.

Markoff says that:

The firm reported in April that one-third of American companies with revenue greater than $1 billion were either planning or considering to move manufacturing back to the United States. Boston Consulting predicted that the reversal could bring two million to three million jobs back to this country."

Read more here.