In a news report, economist Alan S Blinder, a champion of free trade warns about the inevitable consequences of outsourcing.
"Communication technology that allows services to be delivered electronically from afar — will put as many as 40 million jobs at risk of being shipped out of America in the next two decades."
The job insecurity US workers face today is “only the tip of a very big iceberg”, said Blinder.
The same report quoted the disagreement of another economist jagdish Bhagwati.
“You have two-way flows, three-way flows; you have what we call trade in variety,” Bhagwati said. “Even if India has the same skill person, it doesn’t mean the US is going to suffer. It just means the US and India will transact within the same industry.”
He cited the example of clinical trials now being done in India.
“An American surgeon is not going to lose his job because drug trials are being done in India,” he remarked.
Bhagwati responded to the rising rhetoric about high-end research being outsourced:
— there will always be a to-and-fro movement of trade and services.”Read the full report here:
In the immediate future, I can see a great number of jobs being outsourced. However, the process should also pave way for the creation of a lot of better news career positions for Americans.
With some of the traditional jobs now being sent to far locations, US firms should be able to give more attention to the main purposes of their businesses. It will result to the recruitment of more core personnel thus paving the way for higher productivity of American companies.
For example, with help desk call centers and vital machine parts being done elsewhere, the management of a manufacturing company will suddenly have time for greater focus on product development and marketing of their products.
In the areas of medical billing, coding and transcription, the few existing onshore transcribers should learn to handle quality assurance (of the output coming from offshore offices). When the voice recognition technology has matured and become ready to transcribe voice dictations, the transcripionists should be ready to become editors who will fine tune the software to the specific dictators. In IT outsourcing, more managerial jobs will be created onshore. In addition, more attention can be given to the most vital tasks.
The demand for conventional (traditional) jobs will diminish but not totally disappear. Those who will be displaced should be able to upgrade their skills. In so doing, they will be able to move (upwards)to other positions. In the case of the manufacturing company, some of the employees will have to learn to handle sales and marketing or become technically competent to be able to move on to product development.
In the long run, Outsourcing should be good for the country. It will upgrade the skills of its citizens, giving it a higher value. In the end, GDP will increase. Besides, the world continues to move forward, labor unions pressuring their company's management to stop outsourcing are simply posing as hindrances to development.
This is a competitive world, those who fail to upgrade, will be culled.
Hmmn.. I just remembered Darwin and his theory of evolution by natural selection.
With some of the traditional jobs now being sent to far locations, US firms should be able to give more attention to the main purposes of their businesses. It will result to the recruitment of more core personnel thus paving the way for higher productivity of American companies.
For example, with help desk call centers and vital machine parts being done elsewhere, the management of a manufacturing company will suddenly have time for greater focus on product development and marketing of their products.
In the areas of medical billing, coding and transcription, the few existing onshore transcribers should learn to handle quality assurance (of the output coming from offshore offices). When the voice recognition technology has matured and become ready to transcribe voice dictations, the transcripionists should be ready to become editors who will fine tune the software to the specific dictators. In IT outsourcing, more managerial jobs will be created onshore. In addition, more attention can be given to the most vital tasks.
The demand for conventional (traditional) jobs will diminish but not totally disappear. Those who will be displaced should be able to upgrade their skills. In so doing, they will be able to move (upwards)to other positions. In the case of the manufacturing company, some of the employees will have to learn to handle sales and marketing or become technically competent to be able to move on to product development.
In the long run, Outsourcing should be good for the country. It will upgrade the skills of its citizens, giving it a higher value. In the end, GDP will increase. Besides, the world continues to move forward, labor unions pressuring their company's management to stop outsourcing are simply posing as hindrances to development.
This is a competitive world, those who fail to upgrade, will be culled.
Hmmn.. I just remembered Darwin and his theory of evolution by natural selection.
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