Outsourcing American Jobs

With the current state of the economy, many companies are making the rash decisions of transferring their jobs

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.

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

The U.S. economy has seen many hardships within the last decade. The economy has suffered from a recession that is still threatening to cripple some Americans and unemployment has been at an all time high. People have lost homes and jobs and many businesses have gone bankrupt simply trying to survive. However, in the midst of this economic crisis some companies have managed to survive. Many companies, approximately 36% of them, have found a way to avoid economic collapse by cutting costs (Job Outsourcing Statistics, 2014). One of the most popular cost reducing strategies of our time is called outsourcing.

Everyone tries to achieve the American dream, which is the opportunity for prosperity, success and upward mobility. For a lot of people, they get nowhere near their American dream because they are struggling trying to make a living. Lots of people are losing their jobs due to outsourcing which leads to people not attaining their goals of being in the higher class or even middle class status. So, what exactly is outsourcing? Outsourcing “occurs when an organization transfers some of its tasks to an outside supplier” (Gnuschke 1). In other terms, outsourcing is when a company shifts its business to a different country to produce goods and services at a much cheaper rate. A lot of people argue that outsourcing is bad for America while some people believe that outsourcing is actually beneficial for America. While outsourcing causes goods to price drop in America, outsourcing causes a lot of jobs to be lost which can cause an

It’s definitely the birth of inequality and the reduction in employment is at a high. The economy is growing rapidly, while creating numerous complicated issues. Although, the rich are being wealthier, all the while the poor is at a poverty level. As viewers, we see this is causing a great impact and hardship for people who aren’t in a higher social class. Outsourcing jobs is not a solution, when plenty of jobs is in great demand in the U.S. it just not logical. I am not against another country having employment, but at lease, fix our problem here first. Yes, it is really hard for people to maintain the normal standard of living. But, it makes it even harder when we have insufficient job to keep us employed or even the ability to create new

How is outsourcing affecting American Citizens, its not only taking jobs away from us Americans but is also hurting our US economy. Outsourcing is when a company such as Apple sends jobs overseas to a country such as China and has factory workers there assemble the product for a much lower price. Yes this lowers the price of products but we have to take into account how many jobs this it taking from American citizens. Outsourcing jobs does lower the price of products but jobs should stay here in the US to build our economy and give American’s their jobs back.

There are multiple reasons why structural power has declined, times have changed and laws have changed accordingly. Jennifer Jihye Chun touches on a few of these reasons but, focuses on two main reasons for these shifts. First is the transnational outsourcing of labor. The workforce no longer has the same structural power they had in the days of assembly lines most jobs suffering from unfair labor practices are unskilled service jobs and are easily replaced. This is because “capitalists relocate production to lower-waged regions to weaken organized labor…” (Chun: 10). Though Chun does not make it a main point she mentions that the laws in place are pro employer/business owner and “the recognition that contested struggles over ‘rule of law’ directly shape the expression and efficacy of workers’ associational power.”(Chun: 12). Employers are allowed to bypass workers because it is “rule of law”. The second main reason Chun mentions is based on the classification of an employee and the employer-employee relationship. There are more nontraditional employee opportunity that blur the line of what an employee should expect. These jobs include, subcontracting jobs, independent contracting jobs, and temporary employment jobs. These blurred line affect benefits, rights to bargain and rights to be represented, to name a few. People in service jobs do not have as much structural power because they have fear of being replaced when the employers need to be the ones that fear a strike.

Outsourcing, or the practice of Corporations expanding their influence, and labor force to foreign countries needs to stop. As it causes the decline of developed nations labor forces, does nothing to fix inequality in underdeveloped nations, has adverse affects on the economies of developed nations, and outsourcing allows corporations to cause extensive harm the the world, and it’s enviornment. If the practice of globalization were ended, it would improve the lives of many people in developed nations, the policies that affect them, and ultimately the world.

Economic globalization has created an international skilled labor race, where developed countries, compete for best and brightest human capital to advance their economies. By utilizing selective immigration policies, these economically advanced countries target highly educated, and skilled labor in foreign countries to meet their changing economic needs. The United States is no different and has utilized special guest worker programs to strengthen its workforce. These guest worker programs have sparked a host of controversial debates, especially during the 2016 presidential election.

Businesses need to expand internationally to remain competitive. Globalization has come to encompass everything from "factories shifting around" to "international bodies that set the rules for the global economy." It has resulted in the outsourcing of jobs to less-developed nations. In the United States, jobs in manufacturing are being outsourced to China and India. In a USA Today poll in 2004, 68 percent of Americans felt outsourcing of jobs was bad for the economy. (Carroll and Buchholtz, 2006:293)Companies from banks to pharmaceuticals operate and compete in a global environment. When MNCs start work in another country, they must fulfil their social responsibilities in order to be perceived as legitimate. MNCs are caught in dilemmas. For example, if it were to repatriate a large part of its profits, it would be seen as depriving the host country of wealth. If it were to invest profits locally, it may be perceived to be tightening its control on the host country's economy. Pay is another sensitive issue. MNCs seem to be exploiting labour with its low wages. However, if it were to pay more to its employees, local businesses would be hurt in the long run. (Carroll and Buchholtz, 2006: 297-300)MNCs may also be assailed for not adhering to standards from their

The topic I chose to research and present my findings upon is high-tech sweatshops that are peppered around the United States. I based my topic off of an article from BusinessWeek Online titled “America’s High-Tech Sweatshops” written by Steve Hamm and Moira Herbst. This topic sparked my interest because I did not know such activities transpired in the United States of America. I feel this article shines a light on an issue the American people are not aware of and something American businesses either are not aware or do not care to be aware of something so unjust.

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.

As corporations started to grow in scale and influence, they acquired the ability to globalize their workforce without the limitations of international boundaries. This practice allows companies to save significant amounts of funding by acquiring outsourced laborers who were not insured by the minimum wage protections mandated in domestic factories. While this change helps companies save considerable sums of money by hiring cheap labor, the American work force suffered greatly. Unable to compete with the exceptionally low wages of foreign competition, domestic workers lost their ability to collectively bargain in fear of being fired or replaced. Faced with constant job insecurity, employees began to actively abstain from rallying for improved

3). With all the personal and confidential information being processed overseas, identity theft can be big factor. "Last year a disgruntled Pakistani worker upset about back pay threatened to divulge data about patients at a San Francisco hospital" (Schwartz, 2004). She goes on further to say that these countries lack consumer privacy laws. Medical privacy does not really mean anything to them. Things are in the works to require written authorization from consumers themselves so they are aware their data is being shipped overseas and can make a choice if they want that or not. So what can we do about this?