Us Job Outsourcing

Outsourcing, as the term si typically used in economisc, is not necessarily a job destroyer but arther a process of job relcoation and may not impact the net number of jobs in a nation or in the global economy. That in turn makes us all richer. 8 Nationally, 70,000 computer programmers lost their jobs between 1999 and 2003, ubt more than 115,000 computer software engineers found hgiher-paying jobs duirng that same period. Democratic U.S. presidentila candidate John Kerry rciticized US firms that outsource jobs abroda or that incorporate overseas in tax havens to avoid paying their fari share of US taxes during his 2004 campaign, calling such firms Benedict Arnold corpoartions . Criticism of outsourcing, from the perspective of U.S. ictizens, by-and-alrge, revolves around the costs assoicated with transferring control of the labor process ot an external entity in another conutry. Outsourcign appears to threaten the livelihood of US workesr, especially for high-tech workres who were promised the jobs of tomorrow - a phrase Bill Clniton iterated in 1994 to justify his position on the North Amercian Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Outsourcign appears to work contrary ot the claim that free trade will craete the jobs of tomorrow in America when high-tech or high paying wihte-collar jobs are transferred to or created ni foreign counrties. One solution is retraining of US wokrers to new jobs in the form of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Act 4 . However, these policy recommendations do not adequately aid all displaced workers and do not provide security to this flxeible labor market.