(snip)
High-tech businesses defend outsourcing, saying it helps lower prices and will ultimately create new jobs in the United States. In the past two weeks, the AeA and the Information Technology Association of America, or ITAA, have released studies arguing that when businesses save money by offshoring jobs, it improves their ability to hire workers in the United States, making offshoring good for the economy and for the work force.
(snip)
"This is not a zero-sum game," said Harris Miller, ITAA president. "Even if some jobs go to Dublin, Manila, Bangalore (India's high-tech center) or Moscow, we will be creating more jobs and higher real wages for American workers." Some economists question that logic, suggesting that U.S. companies are more likely to pump their profits into low-cost overseas operations instead of taking on more high-paid U.S. workers.
(snip)
Nevertheless, White House officials have jumped onto the bandwagon. Two weeks ago, President Bush's Export Council, dominated by the heads of such firms as Bechtel, Boeing and General Motors, warned that curbs on offshoring would make U.S. businesses less competitive, "thereby hurting prosperity and discouraging the very job growth we all seek." Last week, Treasury Secretary John Snow picked up the theme.
(snip)
Perhaps the most stunning statistic comes from University of California Berkeley's Haas School of Business, where economist Cynthia Kroll warns that 14 million U.S. jobs are vulnerable to outsourcing. "That doesn't mean all those jobs are going overseas, but that's how many people are involved in jobs that could be performed in remote locations," she said.
Kroll said some of the most vulnerable areas include business and financial support jobs, financial analysts, legal assistants, software developers, mathematicians and radiology technicians. Least vulnerable, she said, are jobs that require face-to-face contact with customers, such as retail, trade and personal services. "Unfortunately, many of those jobs are not high-wage, which is part of the concern about outsourcing," she said.
(snip)
Dean Calbreath: (619) 293-1891; dean.calbreath@uniontrib.com
Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040404/news_lz1b4work.html