Outsourcing is the expansion and relocation of jobs from the United States to other countries.  A corporation will move a facility in foreign countries to cut costs, increase revenue, and enable focus on core competencies.  The workers in these countries are paid less than American workers but are still making good wages based on their countries economy.  The services rendered are more productive and done at a lower cost.  I think, if anyone can get better work done for less money, they would jump at the opportunity.

    Some say to themselves that there is no threat to their job because only call centers and such jobs are being relocated.  This industry of outsourcing is expanding and includes the following jobs; Credit Researchers, Equity Researchers, Ivestment Reasearchers, Market Researchers, Intellectual Property Management, Asset Management, Chartered Accountants, Market Analysts, Financial Analysts, Lawyers, Paralegals, Architectual Design, Engineers, Computer Engineers, Software engineers, Graphic Artists, Computer Programmers, Electronic Manufacturing, General Manufacturing, Editors, Writers, Animators, Film Production, Broadcasting, Cable TV, Newspaper/Wire Service Journalism, Publishing, Healthcare, Doctors, Diagnostic Radiology, Credit Card Firms, Collections, Airline Customer Service, Government Service, Private Tutoring, and Education.

Outsourcing can be both beneficial and destructive to the American economy.  It can have an impact on every American, from a job lost to money gained in investing.  Corporation’s benefits are a healthier bottom line, by reducing expenses’ and creating more revenue.  Workers are getting paid a small portion of what they are actually making the company.  These more productive workers continually create gain by broadening the gap of what the worker is valued in salary and how much they produce.  “Jobs are going to India not because of the wage difference but because these jobs are unregulated.  There are no laws in India about minimum wage or the maximum number of hours workers can work…. People are working 16-hour days and often nights, at five times the intensity of the American workers who do the same job.”  (V. Mosco) This will create a rapid growth in stock.  Shareholders and investors are the ones who will see the benefits and will make more money.  On the other end of the spectrum core workers from the middle-lower class are now unemployed.  Also with the growing trend, it will start to consume a vast majority of the job market.  Some argue that this will continually lead to higher paying jobs in the United States.  This happened before when the manufacturing of computers was taken overseas in the 1990’s.  Initially jobs were lost only to be replaced in a few years with higher paying positions.  However because jobs are being relocated there has been a 2.3% increase in unemployment from 2000-2004

The expansion and growth in outsourcing has been an accelerated trend in the past 10 years.  However this has been mostly due to the constant change in the job market.  Since the Second World War jobs have moved away from agriculture and manufacturing to service and information intensive jobs.  We are now living in a post-industrialism society where a mojority of the jobs are knowledge based.  This means we are not producing a physical labor.  “…an increasing amount of work is taken up with the production and distribution of information, communication, and knowledge.”  (V. Mosco) The workforce has evolved in a matter of a few decades and continues to change.  Much of this is due to the extension of global capitalism and the spread of Western culture.

The consequence of terminating jobs in this recession is the American consumers will hold on to and save their money for fear of not having income or possibly not having it in the future.  The lack of consumption impacts the corporations in decreased revenues, lowered sales, and rises/drops in prices based the consumer market.  As this happens’ stock lowers, recession continues, and more possible jobs are lost. 

There are many things to consider in the psychological and social effects on people who are relocated, fired, hired, or even made the cuts and kept their job.  For those who relocate they will have to learn to live in a new culture where many things are different and foreign.  They also have fear that their job may only be temporary, thus loosing trust in their employer.  New employees will have to learn customs, culture, and policy to fit the western company’s demands.  This is where culture really does count. Those who are kept on after cut backs feel as though they are expendable to the company creating a loss in productivity, without motive to work seeing as their job might be shipped off too.  The terminated employees suffer from the worst consequences, loosing self value, confidence, and motive to work.  How should the working American feel if these are the effects of outsourcing?

Common beliefs state that these jobs are only being sent to China, Phillippeans, and India.  These countries may have many workers however we are also seeing growth within Ireland, Canada, Isreal, UK, Europe, Africa, and S. America as well.  Ireland, Canada, and Isreal are the leading countries with the knowledge industry jobs that are leaving the U.S.

To reduce outsourcing companies and employees should be encouraged to work smarter “by focusing their time and energy on creativity, innovation and intelligent work.” (V. Mosco).  There are possiblilities for worker protection in the digital era with ongoing training, transferable skills, and portable health and retirement benefits.  There is a complexity to Outsourcing  that will make policies and practices complicated to generate and regulate due to the unpredictibility of its nature. 

Outsourcing can be viewed with a series of pros and cons.  It benefits the corporation, shareholders, high level employees, those within the foreign country receiving work, and the global market.  However it raises unemployment in the united states, lowers moral for american workers, contrubutes to the unstable economy, and lowers salaries.  Is there a happy medium that can be reached so everyone can benefit?  Will it require new policies for expanding companies?  Will capitalism be allowed to rule in the global market?  Or is outsourcing just the next step in the evolution of the modern work force? 

"Knowledge and Media Workers in the Global Economy: Antimonies of Outsourcing." is a scholorly paper from “Social Identities” found on EBSCO host. Vincent Mosco is Head of the Department of Sociology, Queen’s University, Canada. He has held research positions in the U.S. government with the White House Office of Telecommunication Policy, the National Research Council and the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment and in Canada with the Federal Department of Communication. He sees that there is no way to stop, regulate, or limit outsourcing and is not just low paying jobs. He shows that this is simply the evolution of the job market and growth in global capitalism.  This paper has been written for media scholars and the general public.  The reader is engaged because he shows the the general opinion on outsourcing is incorrect.  Mosco evaluates how in the past few decades the majority of jobs have shifted from agriculture, and manufacturing to service and information intensive jobs which can be performed anywhere.  He shows through various industries and levels within each job category that one form or another can be completed more costly or more efficiently.   Thus proving his point that there are just too many industries, jobs, and corporations involved in outsourcing to be able to controll it.  Also that there are all pay grades affected not just low paying jobs.

"The Experience of Outsourcing Transfer: Implications for Guidance and Counseling" is a scholorly paper writter for th British Journal of Guidance & Counseling found on EBSCO. Stephanie Morgan has a background in IT management, with over twenty years experience in industry.  She is a Chartered Psychologist.  Gillian Symon researches the social construction of identity, and mobile technologies at work. They identify that there are multiple issues within workers going through changes due to outsourcing including anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem to name a few.  This paper is written for Guidance and Counseling but is relevant because it discusses the psychological effects of outsourcing.  We all have felt anxiety, depression, and low self esteem possibly from work.  They help us understand what we will feel if we are personally affected by the outsourcing of jobs.  We see examples of actual workers and how they feel about the changes in their corporation.  What it has done to their lives.  The authors point is validated through the examples that workers do infact suffer from outsourcing. 

 "Offshore Outsourcing and the Dawn of the Post-Colonial Era of Western Engineering Education." European Journal of Engineering Education 31.3 (2006): 303-310 found on EBSCO.  Bethany S. Oberst is a Professor at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.  Russel Jones is Editor of the International Engineering Education Digest, a periodic electronic newsletter. The artcle is written as a scholorly paper for policy-makers and educators.  They show that outsourcing is a threat to advanced technical jobs and we need to prepare for the future with highly educated engineers, and technical employees to be able to produce economic growth.  This paper shows the advancement in education within the countries that are taking jobs overseas.  Now they are producing a higher percentage of the brightest and best in the industry.  This shows that we need to take advancements in education through creativity and innovation.