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This week, leading up to July 4, we're highlighting American products, jobs and stories for our Made in America series. What are your favorite Made in America products? Please comment below and share your ideas.

Here’s an encouraging trend—it may not be big yet, but several mainstream media outlets have recently featured major stories on U.S. companies that are “reshoring” their manufacturing and bringing jobs home. We told you about Master Lock in Milwaukee last week. Here’s a look at some others.

Jerry Anderson, one of the founders of LightSaver Technologies that recently brought back work from China to Carlsbad, Calif., tells Bloomberg Businessweek that manufacturing in the United States is probably 2 percent to 5 percent cheaper once he takes into account the time and trouble of outsourcing production overseas.

In that same Bloomberg Businessweek article, Dana Olson CEO of Ecodev, a Minnesota-based economic development consultancy, said:

There’s a growing sense, with the economy doing what it’s doing, of U.S. companies wanting to produce in the United States. It’s very important to them to have ‘Made in the U.S.A.’ on their label again.

That’s certainly what our readers have been telling us since we asked them a couple of weeks ago what is their favorite Made in America product. Click here and here for some of their answers.

AOL News offers a feature on eight big U.S. firms that are bringing manufacturing jobs back home, including camping gear maker Coleman, NCR of cash register fame and Sleek Audio that makes earbuds for iPhones and other devices.

Earlier this year, NBC’s "Rock Center" featured the trend by highlighting North Carolina furniture maker Lincolnton Furniture that has begun making furniture with local products and workers again. Click here for the video.      

Of course, while this is good news, much, much more has to be done to Bring Jobs Home, including:

• Passing the Bring Jobs Home Act (S. 2884), which will cut taxes for U.S. companies that move jobs and business operations to the United States and end tax loopholes that reward companies that ship jobs overseas. It is expected for a vote after the July 4 recess.
• Passing a call center bill that would bar companies that send call center jobs overseas from receiving federal grants and tax breaks.
• Addressing currency manipulation by other countries, which is a key driver of offshoring; Tax the overseas income of U.S. corporations the same way we tax their domestic income, so they can no longer lower their tax bill by shifting income and jobs overseas; and
• Pushing for fair trade policies that benefit workers—not just multinational corporations.

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