Thread: America's Jobs Are Disappearing

http://www.chronwatch.com/content/conte ... ?aid=14957

America's Jobs Are Disappearing
Written by Alan Caruba
Monday, June 06, 2005

The curse of Cassandra was that she could predict the future, but that no one would believe her.

Ron and Anil Hira have written Outsourcing America ($22.00, Amacom) about the way American jobs will be leaving thousands, possibly even millions, unemployed while low-paid, but well educated workers in India, China and elsewhere replace them. This is likely to be one of those warnings that are going to go largely ignored until it is too late.

Economists at the University of California who have looked at the current job scene and calculated which of those jobs can be done elsewhere for less suggests that nearly one in nine of all US jobs are vulnerable to being outsourced. That’s a staggering 14 million white-collar jobs. The 2004 UC report predicts that, by 2015, approximately 3.5 million white-collar jobs representing $151 million in wages will move overseas. By the end of this year, the report sees 830,000 jobs leaving.

Who is embracing this enticing way to save money? American companies for whom the requirement to compete in the global marketplace virtually demands they take advantage of this option. The jobs affected include those in information technology, call-center operators, accounting, architecture, medical and legal services, and high-level engineering design. By 2008, an estimated 700,000 jobs in customer service and the corporate back-office will move to India.

Even the federal government and some state governments have begin to outsource public sector jobs, including welfare and food stamp service jobs.

The Internet and the ability to move information by phone anywhere in the world is the primary reason for this, but it must be said that Asian nations have been concentrating for years on high standards of education to catch up and compete with the West. They have long-term strategic goals, while we in the West concentrate on the next quarterly report. As a result, there is an endless supply of educated, under-employed workers in India and China.

We think we are living in a global, free-trade world of endless possibilities, but this ignores the fact that Asian governments such as China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan have policies that are designed to help certain industries for the precise purpose of competing with the US. By contrast, the US government cannot seem to stop generating an endless flow of new regulations that impede the ability of every kind and size of business enterprise to compete. It is estimated that the cost of complying with these regulations costs Americans $800 billion a year.

One only has to look at the nation’s huge trade deficits to conclude that something is very wrong with the way we do business with the world. This is not a call for tariffs or other obstacles, but it is a call for the reduction of government mandates that make it difficult to compete.

As out-sourcing increases, American college and university students are beginning to take note. Enrollment, for example, in computer science dropped twenty percent in 2003-2004. Why pursue a career in technological fields, engineering, and other demanding professions when people on the other side of the globe who can afford to earn less can do these jobs? Wages in developing nations like India and China are ten to twenty percent less than those US workers must earn.

Need it be said that, as more and more jobs are out-sourced, a great pool of unemployed Americans will occur? Do not make the assumption they will find other jobs. As the authors of Outsourcing America point out, “The track record for the reemployment of displaced US workers is abysmal.�

Now add the vast horde of illegal aliens flooding the US to take jobs in the construction industry and other enterprises. Consider the fate of countless lawn care or janitorial services companies who cannot compete with those who employ illegal aliens. Consider the $20 billion Mexicans sent home last year, an amount larger than Mexico’s revenues from oil and tourism.

While jobs at the low end of the wage scale disappear for Americans, so too are jobs held by the middle-class. The worse part of all this is that the government is doing nothing to address either the out-sourcing losses or immigration problems. Even now the White House keeps calling for “guest worker� programs that, for migrant labor makes sense, but not for the other jobs Americans would gladly fill. There are already programs that allow foreign white-collar workers to come here and replace higher paid US workers.

There are some indicators that American companies have discovered that out-sourced call centers are a turn-off for many American consumers, but this is cold comfort for the countless Americans, including the 1.8 million college graduates who join the labor force each year.

The result is predictable. Unemployed US workers will pay no taxes, nor will they be buying all those foreign-made products that fill the shelves in American malls. They will not be contributing to retirement savings programs or pension funds that would otherwise be used to invest in new business ventures.

This is a calamity already for those who must compete for blue-collar jobs and it is going to be the same for the middle class. The ripple effect on the American economy will be widespread and awful.

About the Writer: Alan Caruba writes "Warning Signs," a weekly commentary posted on http://www.anxietycenter.com, the website of The National Anxiety Center.

Well what "obstacles" should be dismantled? Minimum wage? Healthcare (this is already well underway at many companies)? Worker's comp? Rules for employee safety? Rules for quality assurance? Child labor laws?

The sad truth is, we are one of the few nations on this planet that have any of these things, and so this whole globalization movement is making it so we will have to dismantle them to stay "competitive."

We will rue the day that we our leaders decided to meld with the Third and 2nd Worlds. We are being slowly brought down to that level.

I have a friend named Joyce who used to be in HR for a major technology corporation in the US (i won't name it here). She told me that these days, when a man hits 40 he is literally a marked man because insurance rates jump so high due to the increased chance of heart attack. This is how careers are being ended these days. It's pretty damned scary. I feel sorry for kids coming up today.

It sucks BobC! Not one company today will be upfront and faithful to any employee dedicated to doing a good job. 'Everyone is replaceable.' What happened to dedication, careers, loyality. There is no such luck as growing with a company or securing a future, and retiring with dignity and a pension fund. There are no more 'Gold Watches', and a pat or a handshake upon leaving. You get booted before they have to pay into a retirement fund for you. It's, 'we are downsizing, blah blah blah'. Sorry. We wish you luck. It plain old sucks! Foreign people get our jobs, simply because they come cheap. Americans are getting the boot! And it's disgraceful. It plain old sucks!

Sooner or later you must pay the piper and there are many ways to skin a cat. Anyone remember the song Allentown by Billy Joel.

Steel
Clothes
Electronics
Cars
Tires
Toys

and so on and so forth!

and I am as guilty as anyone else because up until 2 months ago I shopped at Wal-Mart but I am doing what little I can to buy American and shop in UNION grocery stores and buy AMERICAN automobiles and that is mainly GM and FORD.

I belong to a labor union and you would not believe how many of my fellow workers buy Toyotas and Hondas. I know, I know they have plants in the south BUT that wealth ends up in Tokyo not Detroit.

The problem here is that we are individualistic thinking we americans. There is a lack of COMMUNITY towards our national identity. What can you do when the market drives the economy?

We export jobs as we have done for 30 years or so and we IMPORT people. Average American is $8,000 in debt credit card wise. How many cars on the road with just one person in it?

IF you are rich and have land and a second home and you have lots of $$$ like our politicians both D and R then who cares right?

It spells disaster but I have got mine brother you get yours....that seems to be the American attitude, especially in big cities!

yeah it sucks, Butter.