Outsourcing American Jobs Hurt U.S. Economy Globalization is the integration of markets through the cooperation of internalization, federal, and state governments with corporate companies to provide low-cost products. Subsequently, outsourcing is an essential part of this globalization. However, what exactly is outsourcing? In its broadest sense, outsourcing is simply contracting out functions that had been done in-house—a longtime U.S. practice (“Globalization: Threat or Opportunity”). When a U.S. manufacture product, and buys material from an intermediate supplier from out of the country rather than producing them in-house, that is what is called outsourcing. Also, when U.S. corporation hires outside contractor out-of-the-country to do U.S. call center services for less labor cost that is outsourcing. When a company deals out its operational task, such as payroll, accounting, and software operations that is outsourcing. To get the clear understanding of outsourcing, I have interviewed IKEA’s U.S. Deputy Retail Country Manager Rob Olson about outsourcing—Swedish goods. Olson stated that IKEA’s outsourcing utilizes the unique talents of different countries and their labor markets to increase trade, which helps better allocate resources in their own countries while getting goods cheaper from others. Today, there are massive numbers of people who think what started as a globalized extension by sending some work outside, in fact, is creating uncertainties on structural
Supporters argue that outsourcing has a minimal effect on job losses, and has increased economic growth in some cases. In actuality, outsourcing has decreased the domestic economy by decimating job opportunities and lowering wages. Steven Pearlstein, economics columnist for the Washington post reaffirmed arguments that outsourcing has decreased employment availability and stability of the economy by saying “There are growing numbers of people who think that what started as a sensible, globalized extension of sending some work outside a firm to specialized companies may in fact be creating long-term structural unemployment in the United States, hollowing out entire industries”. (Pearlstein 3) The IT industry has been especially affected by outsourcing, with many jobs moving overseas to India and Bangladesh, leaving employees in the United States without a job, unable to compete with lower wage offerings. Supporters of outsourcing argue that this business strategy increases everyone’s productivity, raising everyone’s income, and boosting economic growth. Many such studies tend to focus on large multinational corporations, for which the data and anecdotes are more readily available. And indeed, during the 1990s, the data seemed to show that for every one job added abroad, companies added almost two new
With the current state of the economy, many companies are making the rash decisions of transferring their jobs
Many businesses in United States manufacture their product overseas. This involves manufacturing products outside United States where the labor cost is cheaper. Because of cheap labor, it is often more economical for a U.S. company to manufacture overseas and pay the shipping costs than to manufacture in the United States. For a company, the savings may be substantial. However, there are negative impacts on U.S. employment, as many jobs in the United States are being outsourced and replaced by overseas positions. The manufacturers outsource production projects to save time, money or resources. The manufacturing is outsourced so as to remain competitive and maintain a steady work flow. Without outsourcing, manufacturing costs could escalate to the point at which no product would sell and all employees would have no work. Outsourcing comes
Outsourcing emerged on the financial arena during the 1980s and has since then been spreading. Outsourcing production was furthered with the process of globalization which provided a new component leading to the strengthening of resources, skill and labor specializations across the world. The process of outsourcing is using the skill and abilities of a third-party to accommodate society on the foundation of labor. As stated earlier, it was during the 1980s that the process kicked off mainly due to the efforts of corporations when they began to hire labor forces across the world. Even though outsourcing has come out from its developing stages, there are still following effects on the US economy.
It ends up putting our country farther into its trillions of dollars in debt. “Eight of the biggest U.S. technology companies added a combined $69 billion to their stockpiled offshore profits over the past year, even as some corporations in other industries felt pressure to bring cash back home (U.S)”. Eight of the top technology companies,including Microsoft, Apple and Google, now account for more than a fifth of the $2.10 trillion in profits that U.S. companies are holding overseas. “The amount of unrepatriated foreign profits reached $2.4 trillion, according to Citizens for Tax Justice, allowing companies to avoid up to $695 billion in taxes
Outsourcing: a practice used by companies to save money by moving some jobs overseas rather than hiring local workers.
As the world has gotten “smaller” in terms of trade, outsourcing has become a hot topic in much political and economic debate in the United States.
All of us, working or nonworking, get to enjoy Labor Day, a national holiday in September that gives the American people the day off. However, just how does this effect the nation when companies are using foreign labor? There are two prominent types of foreign labor that are used today; this includes the usage of factories over seas, or the bringing in of migrant workers. Migrant workers have been used before the Civil War in the 1860’s, including slaves brought from Africa to work on plantations. Today, in the United States, migrant workers are those who have fled and work for a company, legally or illegally. The most popular and stereotypical example are Mexicans.
At the time of development of globalization there were many concerns about its benefits. However, it has brought significant changes in all segments of human life and International business is one area in which it contributed heavily (Reich, 1998). Companies all over the world are currently formulating their business strategies mainly after considering the trends in global market instead of domestic market. Outsourcing and offshoring are some of the new business principles emerged in this world after the implementation of globalization (Samimi and Jentabad, 2014). The core of these new business concepts is to exploit the business opportunities in overseas countries as much as possible (Samimi and Jentabad, 2014).
The main goal of a business is to break even, spending about the amount as profits gained, or gain a net profit and expand. While expanding is expensive, companies will attempt to outsource jobs to different countries for a cheaper cost . Outsourcing is an issue for multiple unemployed and employed Americans, where the businesses could be supporting families by creating jobs for those who need them. Flatworld solutions, a company made to help businesses outsource jobs, would argue, “You can get your job done at a lower cost and at better quality as well” (Flatworld). It does lower the cost,
Outsourcing is a method used by many corporations in which their products are manufactured in foreign countries often for cheaper labor.This method method of productions has it’s pros and cons.
Outsourcing is when a company purchases products or services from an outside supplier rather than performing the same work within its own facilities, in order to cut costs. In other words, outsourcing is an organization's contractual relationship with a specialized outside service provider for work traditionally done internally by that organization. The decision to outsource is a major strategic one for most companies because it involves weighing the potential cost saving against the consequences of a loss in control over the product or service. Some common examples of outsourcing include manufacturing of components, computer programming services, tax compliance and other accounting functions, as well as payroll and other
The process of globalization has numerous significant effects on countries, organizations, and individuals. These effects can be observed in the quality of products, in their prices, but also in their availability. Because of globalization, numerous companies prefer to expand their business on international level. Some of them outsource some of their processes and activities to cheaper destinations that allow them to reduce their investments.
Critics see outsourcing as impacting both domestic and foreign countries in a negative way. Domestic economics falters since business is transferred to outside sources, therefore local employment suffers, prices may rise, and people may lose their jobs. The United States loses about 230,000 jobs a year due to outsourcing and new jobs are not crated that frequently or rapidly, therefore local unemployment rises. At the same time, the US also loses skills due to outsourcing. Developing countries also experience global stratification where, even though the imported business upgrades social conditions, social demarcation and hierarchy occurs where the labor class is exploited by newly formed elite. This is called "Global stratification". Consequences may be disastrous not only for the country
Globalization is something that has been occurring since early in the history of entrepreneurs, and something that will not be going away anytime soon. Businesses can enjoy many benefits from globalization that include an increased audience to market their products to, and quicker sharing of innovative ideas. The advantages of globalization are just as much a disadvantage. The increase in competition between domestic and foreign business has lead to a decrease in employment and an increase in outsourcing. Businesses need