Economist Daniel Drezner on the Facts About Outsourcing
Source: csmonitor.com
Every where you look lately, there's another article or news alert about American companies outsourcing. Often, the story paints a picture of a troubled economy that is unable to recover from the mounting job losses to overseas workers.
However, economist Daniel Drezner is skeptical. Could all of these reports flooding into the papers be politically driven? Are there any facts and figures to back up these horrible stories about outsourcing?
This was the topoc of Drezner's recent OP-ED piece in the New York times.
Among his findings:
Now, however, we can add some actual figures to the overheated debate. The Government Accountability Office has issued its first review of the data, and one undeniable conclusion to be drawn from it is that outsourcing is not quite the job-destroying tsunami it's been made out to be. Of the 1.5 million jobs lost last year in "mass layoffs'' – that is, when 50 or more workers are let go at once – less than 1 percent were attributed to overseas relocation; that was a decline from the previous year. In 2002, only about 4 percent of the money directly invested by American companies overseas went to the developing countries that are most likely to account for outsourced jobs – and most of that money was concentrated in manufacturing.
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The outsourcing trend has brought with it a vast number of opportunities to the developing countries such as ours in the Philippines, India, China and other parts of Asia. Though this had caused a loss of jobs in the US but on the other side this also has brought plenty of jobs to us. We hope that the US or Europe will not alter the trend in the near future because that would mean a our major loss.
Comment by on June 10, 2010 12:27 pm
Perhaps, the cards are all laid in the table. I hope people would not give too much fuss about this issue anymore. [URL=http://virtualofficesolution.blogspot.com/]Outsourcing[/URL] has given jobs to millions of people from the Philippines or India for example. It would be very sad if this hope is taken from the people who needs it most.
Comment by jj on June 21, 2010 10:31 pm
Perhaps, the cards are all laid in the table. I hope people would not give too much fuss about this issue anymore.Outsourcing has given jobs to millions of people from the Philippines or India for example. It would be very sad if this hope is taken from the people who needs it most.
Comment by jj on June 21, 2010 10:32 pm
I think when people say that outsourcing is to be blamed for the loss of jobs, they are only looking at one side of the coin. The truth is that outsourcing helps many struggling business survives, encouraging small business and startups tom take that risk in these tough economy. Still, not all jobs can be totally outsourced and there are a very few companies out there running on 100% virtual business.
Comment by Ajeva on June 28, 2010 9:53 pm
I am interested in knowing the truth of outsourcing of IT in reducing and controlling operating cost and also improving company focus. How your opinion about that?
Comment by arif on July 2, 2010 7:08 pm