Offshoring And Employment Trends And Impacts

This report defines offshoring in detail, describes the wide-ranging effects that offshoring can have on employment both positively and negatively, and outlines the policy implications, suggesting ways to limit the downside of offshoring while building trust among stakeholders.

The Oxford Handbook of Offshoring and Global Employment deals with a key issue of our time: How do globalization, economic growth and technological developments interact to impact employment? The book brings together eminent authors from a wide range of countries around the world, drawing on their diverse academic and policymaking backgrounds, and specific national or regional settings to assess how global economic changes have affected employment opportunities. The book is unique in a number of ways - It has a global reach, presenting analyses and viewpoints from both developed and developing countries, from all continents; its timing and context is particularly instructive, since most papers are located in the aftermath of the global financial crisis; and it addresses a wide range of questions-How do different types of offshoring and global linkages impact employment? How is the skill mix of the labor force impacted by globalization? How do institutional structures and regulations influence the outcome of globalization in developed and developing countries? Individual chapters analyze how the impact of global linkages on national economies is mediated through a number of structural aspects of the economy - its institutional and industrial structure, its resource base, its predominant firm type, its comparative advantage, and its regulatory practices. The chapters in the book cover both manufacturing and services sectors, and many chapters also address policy issues regarding innovation and job creation.

Offshoring, also known as offshore outsourcing, is the term now being used to describe a practice among companies located in the United States of contracting with businesses beyond U.S. borders to perform services that would otherwise have been provided by in-house employees in white-collar occupations. The term is equally applicable to U.S. firms offshoring the jobs of blue-collar workers on textile and auto assembly lines, for example, which has been taking place for decades. The extension of offshoring from U.S. manufacturers to service providers has heightened public policy concerns about the extent of job loss and foregone employment opportunities among U.S. workers. This concern is especially pertinent to policymakers because of a national unemployment rate persistently exceeding 9 per cent despite the end of the latest recession. This book discusses the impacts of offshoring on jobs and small U.S. manufacturers.

Much attention has focused on the offshoringÓ of services to lower-wage locations abroad. Offshoring generally refers to an org. purchase of goods or services from abroad that were previously produced domestically. Extensive public debate has arisen about both the potential benefits of services offshoring, such as lower consumer prices & higher U.S. productivity, as well as the potential costs, such as increased job displacement for selected U.S. workers. This report: provides an overview of experts' views on the potential impacts of services offshoring; describes the types of policies that have been proposed in response to offshoring; & highlights some key areas where add'l. research might help advance the debate about offshoring. Illus.

This collection of papers examines key trends in the internationalisation of employment, drawing on the proceedings of an ILO conference held in Annecy, France in April 2005. The papers focus on three related issues: the impacts of trade and investment abroad, including the offshoring of production of goods and services, and effects on the winners and losers in terms of employment; adjustment methods for coping with the short and medium term problems related to the globalisation of employment; and the importance of international instruments to help ensure a level playing field in trade and promote development, drawing on established rights and international labour standards.

The book contains essays from around the world addressing how globalization and offshoring have affected employment structure and job creation in both developing and developed countries.

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject Computer Science - Commercial Information Technology, grade: 2 (B), University of Mannheim (Information Systems), course: Industrialization of Software Development, language: English, abstract: Topic of this paper are the macro economic issues of offshore outsourcing. First inland and offshore outsourcing are described, especially focused on IT outsourcing. Then reasons for IT offshore outsourcing are illustrated. Popular offshore markets are introduced and the advantages are shown. In the next chapter, problems and risks of offshore outsourcing are explained. Both the more general view and IT specific problems and risks are described. Here general problems as well as problems of IT outsourcing are mentioned. Then consequences of the offshoring trend are illustrated. Apart from consequences for IT branch, especially consequences for national economies of western countries, e.g. Germany, are viewed in detail. There can be short term and long term consequences. Future offshore outsourcing trends help to understand the effects. The development of unemployment caused by offshoring is one main focus. Furthermore offshoring trends in other white collar work besides IT are shortly described. At the end this the paper develops an idea about possible solutions for western countries. Potential reactions of the government and suggestions on how to create new jobs are presented in detail. The paper finally ends with a small conclusion.

Services – from information technology to research to finance – are now as subject to international trade as goods have been for decades. What are the labor market consequences of the recent surge in services offshoring? While offshoring has traditionally been found to affect only less-skilled workers in industrialized countries, this study finds that services offshoring also has negative consequences for high-skilled workers. Focusing on the case of Germany, Deborah Winkler shows how services offshoring has grown, who is most affected and what policy makers can do. Winkler measures the impact of services offshoring on German productivity, employment, and employment structure. She provides a well-balanced synthesis of theoretical insights, detailed empirical analysis, and economic policy recommendations. Although her main focus is on the case of Germany, many insights are also applicable to other developed countries.