Benefits And Drawbacks Of Outsourcing

By 2004, more than 80 percent of U.S. executive boardrooms will have discussed offshore sourcing, and more than 40 percent of U.S. enterprises will have completed some type of pilot or will be sourcing IT (information technology) services. In fact, some of the biggest firms in the United States have been seriously discussing outsourcing recently. One of these companies being IBM, the world's biggest computer maker, discussed saving about $168 million beginning in 2006 by moving thousands of programming jobs overseas, according to internal information provided. U.S. businesses, battered by the recent three year bear market in stocks and an economy struggling to find its footing, have already developed a taste for super cheap labor in developing countries, where workers are increasingly better trained especially if they've spent significant time working in the United States on temporary visas. The impact of overseas outsourcing could be significant; many economists doubt the trend is big enough yet to disrupt the broader U.S. economy. Imports of business services account for less than 1/20 of 1 percent of gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation's economy. At the least, it's not doing much to end the longest U.S. labor-market slump since World War II. More than 9.3 million people are

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

Despite that an excessively excellent image of outsourcing was provided to individuals one or two of years back, the truth check they were confronted with shattered the dream badly. Recent statistics reveal that over four-hundredth corporations are concerned either in experimenting or are already engaged in shifting their services overseas in search of low-cost labor and services that are being provided by countries like China and Bharat. Such efforts have left native market labor at extreme disadvantage wherever they're finding it vastly tedious to create each ends meet, leave behind the back-breaking burden of taxes they're being obligatory to. With over four-hundredth major company executives registering their opinion by discouraging the method of outsourcing the controversy that was antecedently being won by the

The phenomenon has created major suffering for many American and as this outsourcing continues to spread, Americans will demand action (R. Hira 2008, p-95). The book also adds that scholars Ralph Goory and William Baumol have shown that even when the basic model of the economics are used trade does not make both the trading partners better off. The trading in one country will have a negative impact while trading in other country will have a positive impact. The country with negative impact will definitely affect its economy. United States economy being the world’s largest economy; historically, it has maintained a stable GDP growth, a low unemployment rate, a high level of research and capital investment funded by both national, and because of increasing saving rates, increasingly by foreign investors. But offshore outsourcing has increased the unemployment rate dramatically in the decade. And so the economy worsened day by day.

The most cited official projection outsourcing is by Forrester. It is estimated that outsourced US jobs will grow from about 400,000 in 2004 to 3.3 million (recenty revised to 3.4 million) by 2015 which seems quite significant. But on a yearly basis this accounts for about 250,000 jobs but in perspective the number is small compared to the total US employment of 137 million. It actually only constituate less than 2 per cent of 15 million Americans who lose their jobs each year . Goldman Sachs estimates that offshoring has accounted for 500,000 million lay offs in the past three years. A study by Ashok Deo Bardhan and Cynthia A. Kroll at the University of California, Berkeley indicates that up to 14 million Americans now work in occupations that are at risk of being outsourced . Forrester also estimated that 300,000 US jobs have been outsourced. While the Commerce Department 400,000 new jobs, which leaves a net result of 100,000 new US jobs . In addition, an Economic Policy Institute in New York announced that 144,000 new jobs were created in August 2004 . Summarizing the numbers, it seems that outsourcing will have a positive effect on the overall US economy.

While outsourcing may be beneficial to some of the companies partaking in it, the general consensus is that it ultimately proves to be harmful to the American workforce. The act of outsourcing and shifting many company call centers and technical support teams, or “low skill service jobs,” to foreign countries reduces jobs for those that could truly benefit from them within our own country. The unemployment rate has dramatically increased, and continues to rise, compared to what it has been in years past; yet there are numerous companies which still insist on handing over these “low skill service jobs” to people in other countries such as India. The most obvious and logical reason for outsourcing is reducing costs; people are working for

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.

The driving components for outsourcing are clear: lesser expenses all the way around. A machine software engineer in India makes $5,880 to $11,000, while an American machine software engineer wins in the middle of $60,000 and $80,000. American organizations stand to spare measures of cash by outsourcing. Today, gauges of employment misfortune in the United States propose that in the last ten years, between 400,000 to 500,000 data engineering preparing jobs have been outsourced. While this speaks to a moderately little parcel of the United States work power of around 130 million laborers (Tyson), concerns over the loss of profoundly talented employees and expectations that the outsourcing pattern will keep on growing have made outsourcing an imperative and questionable subject.

In analyzing the second reason listed for why outsourcing is used; ‘inability to attract the highest caliber of employees to job functions that may be peripheral to the organization’s core discipline’, companies employ a different kind of outsourcing tactic. This reason leads to offshore outsourcing solutions. If a company cannot attract high caliber domestic employees to job functions secondary to their main function then they seek help where labor may be less expensive and more efficient.

“Today, Indian outsourcing is one of the best ways for CIOs to cut application development and maintenance costs, and deal effectively with the peaks and valleys of software demands.” (Yeo). Outsourcing to India is still focused primarily on highly technological aspects, but is not limited there. They are known for creative development in the pharmaceutical field, and have recently developed an unsurpassed medication for adult ADHD. Their superior IT assistance is not limited to companies, they offer many websites for individuals seeking help with programming. In mid 2007, U.S. outsourcing to India reached $4.9 billion. Although technologically advanced, they still lag in economic prosperity and therefore still don’t expect the type of compensation that Americans do. “They

Among the list of controversial issues relating to jobs and the economy in the United States, outsourcing is right up there near the top. Politicians frequently attack each other using the phrase, "sending our jobs overseas…" and many a politician has been stung by this accusation. Thesis: While there are clearly benefits to be realized by companies that engage in outsourcing, there are also difficulties, drawbacks, and unanticipated expenses associated with outsourcing. Outsourcer, beware, should be the motto going into to any outsourcing arrangement.

In the past decade the topic of outsourcing has become a heavily debated subject on if it is ethically correct to outsourcing jobs to foreign countries. Outsourcing has become more and more an option for many companies and not just an economic fad. The decision to outsource is a difficult one for any company to make because there are many advantages and disadvantages to consider. The decision to outsource affects many people, communities, and industries so if a corporation decides to outsource they must consider how it will affect human dignity, the common good of the economy, and subsidiary.

There are a multitude of strategic dimensions associated with sourcing and shoring techniques in the marketplace, conducting business abroad, and conducting business on the home front, or near the home place. These strategic dimensions include (a) domestic outsourcing (b) insourcing (c) backsourcing (d) offshoring (e) offshore outsourcing (f) onshoring (g) nearshoring (h) strategic outsourcing (i) business process outsourcing (BPO) and (j) offshore service providers (OSPs). These sourcing and shoring techniques can be complicated to understand. Domestic outsourcing is when a company decides to let go of an in-house job to go to another domestic company to perform (Koku, 2009). Insourcing is bringing back work internally that was previously outsourced (Nodoushani & McKnight, 2012). Backsourcing is rescinding the product or service back to the home country where it came from originally. Offshoring is when a company from one country outsources work to businesses in another country by either conducting operations in the foreign country, or subcontracting this work out through outsource providers who then transfer this work overseas (Chadee & Ramen, 2009; Koku, 2009).

The concept of outsourcing originate from the American terminology “outside resourcing”, meaning to get resources from the outside.1

Green, Aaron. (2007, September 17). “Part 1: Offshoring basics: definitions, benefits, and challenges.” Retrieved from www.boston.com/jobs/on_staffing/091707.shtml