Posted on 10/13/2009 5:50:02 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
On the measurability of offshorability
Alan S. Blinder
9 October 2009
Fear of offshoring may force its way back onto policy agendas soon. This column uses a survey of individual workers to measure the offshorability of particular jobs and says that about 25% of US jobs are offshorable. Surprisingly, routine tasks are not more offshorable but those held by more educated workers are.
Although overshadowed by the financial crisis and the world recession right now, the debate over offshoring that is, outsourcing work to foreign (often poorer) countries seems poised to stage a comeback as a public policy concern in the not-too-distant future. Indeed, with so much protectionist talk and some protectionist action in the air, fear of offshoring may force its way back onto the policy agendas of the US and other rich countries sooner than we think.
It seems axiomatic that both the economically appropriate and the politically feasible policy responses to offshoring should differ depending on whether the share of the workforce holding offshorable jobs is, say, 2%, 25%, or 75%. In the 2% case, we should probably ignore offshoring as a detail of little consequence. In the 75% case, we should perhaps be seeking radical solutions to the manifold problems caused by massive job dislocations. But if a number nearer to 25% is more plausible, as argued here, the situation probably calls for certain marginal (and some not so marginal) policy adjustments but certainly not panic. Thus it seems important to obtain a rough empirical handle on this number, slippery though the concept of offshorability may be.1
(Excerpt) Read more at voxeu.org ...
Ping!
Legal services (back room stuff done by lawyers and paralegals) being done offshore is booming.
Who deserves outsourcing more? Unionized auto workers, or free-marketer Wall Streeters?
That’s O.K., soon the jobs will be outsourced to us.....
Both have a whole range of other jobs attatched to theirs that would be lost.
Actually I know someone working for a large legal services outsourcing firm in the Philippines. They are growing like crazy.
I cannot wait until the MSM is outsourced.
Whatever isn’t outsourced will be done by illegals.
Most physician jobs that do not require hands-on patient contact (Radiology, Pathology) can be and are remotely sourced. Those x-rays you get at your doctor’s office or urgent care center are interpreted miles away by a Radiologist sitting in a reading center.
The Pap smear your wife received during her last checkup is probably interpreted in Singapore.
Most medical transcription is done remotely via broadband connections to India.
Not if the environazis remain in power along with the unions. There is more to overhead costs than wages.
Out sourcing is their way, the lovers of socialism have destroyed us and are stealing the last of America’s wealth and liberties.
This is the cost of not believing the God of Israel’s testimony of His Son Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour.
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord but sin is a reproach to any people”.
The chicken have come home to roost.
Those who think this is not “patriotic” never stop to consider how those who start companies are really being imposed upon and taken advantage of by a parasitic government that is a good dozen times larger than its LIMITED AND ENUMERATED POWERS would otherwise indicate it should be.
I am working on a startup that will employ a number of people. At this stage it is almost as easy to configure the company to use non-US workers as US workers. The more burdensome the US tax and regulatory regime becomes, the easier it becomes to locate elsewhere. That's the facts, Jack.
One of the most easily offshoreable jobs is that of college economics professors. Just establish a TV hookup to qualified economics grads in India or China and cut that salary cost by about 75% or more.
If there is one cost that needs to be controlled these days, it’s the cost of college tuition.
Actually, all sorts of teaching jobs could be offshored, but econ professors should really just step forward and insist that their jobs be offshored to hold true to their free market, comparative advantage notions.
Offshoreable? What a damned word.
Why so many otherwise gung-ho, America loving patriotic conservatives see absolutely nothing wrong with destroying Americans jobs, is beyond comprehension.
Duncan Hunter was interviewed Friday on a radio show - there was a thread about it yesterday.
He gets it. Why don’t more here? ANYTHING which weakens America, is a bad thing.
Eliminating US jobs certainly weakens America.
Worst: it also strengthens the Democrat party.
Since the money from “We the People” was taken from us and given to General Motors is it not great to know that many of their cars are made in Mexico?
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