One of the many issues and controversies of jobs is outsourcing. Jobs migration is when companies send some of their jobs overseas to different countries. Outsourcing is the procurement of a service or product, such as parts in the manufacture of motor-vehicles, from an outside supplier or the manufacturer to cut costs. Outsourcing has been gradually over the past four decades “over the past four decades” (Stokes). Outsourcing jobs is a controversial topic for a variety of reasons, but the main reason is that it hurts the US economy.
The US economy is being hurt by the loss of jobs. One of the biggest ways the US economy suffers is because of the loss of jobs in each passing year. Americans are losing business overseas because it’s cheap. Outsourcing “allows a skilled and cheap foreign labor force to provide American consumers with financial information, MGE and airline services at any hour of the day or night” (Stokes). Below is a chart from Sheree R. Curry and Jeremy Kahn’s article, Small Firms Find that Outsourcing Cuts Both Ways. The chart shows the various jobs that America has lost to different countries since 2001. It shows a wide variety of different jobs, for example accounting, telephone call centers, software publishers, etc.
Job Exodus
Percentage of jobs lost since 2001 in heavily outsourced sectors
-10.2% Software publishers (excluding Internet)
-10.3% Accounting, bookkeeping, and payroll
-10.6% Telephone call centers
-14% Computer systems design
-24% Computer and electronic products
SOURCE: US Bureau of Labor Statistics
If outsourcing continues the way it will, then Americans are likely to lose their jobs, “The most frequent estimate, by Research Forrester, a leading business consulting firm, predicts that 3.3 million jobs will be transferred to the United States overseas by 2015” (Stokes) . People who lose their jobs and are lucky enough to still not be able to find new ones have the same benefits and money that they have at work because they “can count on less pay” (Evans). That “they can settle for less pay” is because they have had the same job for most of their lives (Evans). In this way they are most likely to raise and promote. Therefore, if they take on new occupations, they have to start at the bottom. Those who have lost their jobs and found new ones with less pay are not so well off, because they will have to cut back on things that are useful or things they need.
Some say outsourcing is good for the US economy. The reason some people say sending jobs overseas is a good thing is because they think it will save the economy money, “But savings they come at a price: the loss of white-collar jobs that are supposed to provide future employment opportunities for American sons and daughters who lost their jobs in the shrinking manufacturing sector” (Strokes, 35). This means that America is counting on the lost jobs to be used by the daughters and sons of American workers who are currently working there. How does it really help America save money if we win more and more jobs from each other. let the year pass? To help the economy grow you have to spend money. If you want to spend money, you’re going to have to spend money. Therefore, to have money, you need to work and have a salary. However, if you’ve lost your job then you’re not working so you’re not getting paid so you can’t spend money to grow the economy. So if the economy is not growing, then it either stagnates or declines (it is more likely a decline).
Most people who lose their jobs are older people, middle-aged and older, and have had a lot of work for their lives. They don’t have time or money to go back to school and learn a new career or trade. Not only to provide for himself, but also to provide the most for his own. But how are they going to provide for their families without a job? They cannot provide for their families without a job unless they continue in good health, and most people do not want to get well. The republic also costs money and the government receives money from the treasury. However, when people lose their jobs, they have no money to pay taxes. Or is the good much longer to be desired? So, what do older people do? Nothing? What if your father, brother, uncle, mother, grandfather, husband, wife, or maybe even someone lost their job? What should you do? Do you think the government will step in if those people have even lost your job to outsourcing? The government needs to help more than do that. A lot of people who jobs outsourcing jobs they change their mind a lot if they lost their job or someone close to them. They lost their job because of outsourcing.
It seems that companies that send some of their jobs overseas do so not because it helps or hurts the economy, but because they are greedy and want to save their money. Companies started sending manufacturing overseas, but over the years they started sending different and deeper businesses overseas. Computer programmers and other “white-collar jobs are the new victims of globalization and deserve help” (Stokes). Bruce Strokes directed the Petkevish & Partners, a San Francisco-based investment and financial advisory firm, Michael Borrus, “Foreign incursions have allowed American companies to specialize in what they do well, take advantage of the work done offshore, and bring everything back to the benefit of society” (Stokes). This means that companies and companies that outsource jobs only care about themselves and their companies.
They don’t care about America, its economy, or what happens to people who lose their jobs because the companies are winners, “American companies are doing better than America,” observed analyst Donald Straszheim (Allen). So if different companies are winners, then losers must be and according to Jodie Allen “The losers are the middle and working classes in the now rich countries” (Allen). and the proletariat does. Below is a paper on Outsourcing jobs in the U.S. that takes a look at different computer programs. The paper shows why American companies like computer programming. Jobs are being taken away from America and sent overseas because the company is cheaper.
Pay Disparity
Comparison of average salaries for computer programmers for selected countries.
Country Fare Range
Poland and Hungary $4,800-$8,000
Russian Federation $5,000-$7,500
India $5,880-$11,000
Philippines $6,564
Malaysia $7,200
China $8,952
Israel $15,000-$34,000
Ireland $23,000-$34,000
Canada $28,174
US $60,000-$80,000
Source: New Wave Outsourcing, Ashok Deo Bardhan and Cynthia A. Kroll
However, even though it is less expensive for companies to send jobs overseas, some of those jobs can still be harder and harder. In the article, On the Near Ends: Outsourcing, the chief financial editor of Global Insight was interviewed, “According to Nariman Behravesh, chief financial officer of Global Insight, a forecasting and consulting firm in Waltham, MA, computer software programming requires greater creativity and seems more difficult to manage at a distance” (Editor). Which most companies don’t think about. Hopefully it will strike them and bring jobs back to America, it’s unlikely but we all already have the hope that sending jobs overseas will fail and companies them they will move to America.
Outsourcing hurts America where it counts the most, in its economy. However, nothing is being done about it. Many people lose their jobs because it is cheap for the company to pay others to work in different countries. Shouldn’t America be worried about its economy? Companies are finding and sending more jobs overseas. What prevents them from coming after your job? Nothing. If they think they will pay someone less money for the same amount of work you can do elsewhere, then your job could and most likely will be next. No jobs are truly safe when it comes to outsourcing. Outsourcing jobs is a very controversial issue for many different reasons, but the main reason is that it hurts the US economy. America’s suffering economy leads to other issues “about jobs and food, feeding our families and their health and well-being in a world that presents threats” (Challenger). If the economy is hurting, it’s because it’s losing money. If the economy is losing money, it means that people in the economy are losing money (for example, power). People cannot survive without money, because money allows us to buy the things we need. Profitable jobs affect not only the people who lose their jobs but the entire economy, and yet nothing is being done about it.
