The Offshoring of America's Top Jobs

CAREERPLANNER.COM ^ | Michael T. Robinson

[Momaw Nadon]

The Offshoring of America's Top Jobs

Many of America's top jobs are moving offshore. Which jobs are most likely to be hit by "offshoring" and what can you do to protect and safeguard your career?

Jobs that are most likely to be moved offshore have these Characteristics:

• Work is highly repetitive (accounting)
• Work is predictable and well defined (customer service)
• Can be broken down into small manageable projects (software development)
• Can be turned into a routine (Tele-marketing)
• Proximity to the end customer is not important (phone based tech support of consumer products)
• End customer has already moved offshore (semiconductor sales)

Jobs that are unlikely to move offshore have these Characteristics?

• High degree of ambiguity (top management positions)
• Unpredictable (hands on technical troubleshooting)
• Understanding of the culture is critical (authoring books, marketing, comedians)
• Time is of the essence (fast product development)
• Requires a high degree of collaboration (making a movie)
• Requires close proximity to the end customer (firefighting, auto repair, dental work)
• Requires high degree of creativity and innovation (creating new products, technical breakthroughs, writing music)

What can you do to protect and safeguard your Job?

• Be the best in your field. Be much better than the next guy.
• Demonstrate the ability to be creative and innovative.
• Market your accomplishments to your management.
• Get out of any highly repetitive jobs that do not require close proximity to the customer.
• Choose a career where the demand will be so high that even tapping into the huge, low cost labor markets of China and India will not fill all the jobs.
• Choose a career from the "safe" list of jobs below.

Going, Going Gone
Our list of secure jobs and high risk Jobs

The list below shows four categories of jobs:

1. Safe / No Risk: Most of these jobs are safe from offshoring due to the need for being physically close to the customer.
2. Moderate Risk: These jobs might be starting to move offshore. There is no trend yet, but the nature of the work fits the pattern of a job that can be moved out of the US.
3. High Risk: Many of these jobs have already started to move offshore. The nature of these jobs matches those that can be moved easily and managed remotely.

4. Extreme Risk: You would have to be blind to not see that many of these jobs have already moved. The trend towards offshoring has been visible for more than a few years.

Finally, there is good news. The list of jobs that are safe from offshoring is much longer than the lists of jobs that are expected to be hit by offshoring.

Risk of Job Offshoring List

[Momaw Nadon]

FYI and discussion

Agree? Disagree? What is your opinion?

[squidly]

I'm not here to deny the offshoring of jobs, far from it. However, I must make the point that while American jobs are outsourced, somewhere from 2 to 3 times as many jobs are insourced by foreign companies. (If you choose to disagree with this FACT, how else will you explain the U.S. unemployment rate hanging around 5% or lower?) The MSM does not report this, as it doesn't fit their "bad news sells" template.

Be all that as it may, the most important thing is to break down trade barriers with foreign nations. All too often, "free trade" means that foreign companies are free to export their stuff to USA, while we aren't free to export our stuff to them. Just to name two, there are far too many market restrictions on US goods in China and Japan, while we allow their goods to flood our markets.

[Old Sarge]

I agree.

[upsdriver]

My job is safe.

This was one of Duncan Hunter’s pet issues. Did anyone else even mention it, let alone give it serious consideration? McCain?

[Sybeck1]

McCain will get everybody a “green” job....

[jrestrepo]

My job is “Manufacturing Manager” which puts me in “Gone - Extreme Risk”...but somehow it is not gone but it sure has changed a lot in the last 15 years.

[CodeToad]

“If you choose to disagree with this FACT, how else will you explain the U.S. unemployment rate hanging around 5% or lower?”

The unemployment rate is a political number subject to manipulation. Show me the number of people filing a 1040 each year and the amounts they earn. That is what matters, not some ficticious politically manipulated number.

[informavoracious]

If all of the Going, Going, Gone jobs are outsourced, there won’t be enough people left able to pay those with Safe jobs - so they won’t be safe at all. Let’s all become comedians or filmmakers! Yes, that’s the ticket to prosperity!

[squidly]

You are right even more than you have posted that you are. Many who are unemployed do not file for unemployment benefits, and it is the number of unemployed filing which represents the percentage of unemployed.

But my point about insourcing vs. outsourcing remains.

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

I think the list of No Risk jobs is a little optimistic. I’m a technical writer, and while I don’t feel a lot of pressure in my current job, I can see it going offshore to places like India in cases where the workers may speak better English than many Americans. I guess we’ll see. Retirement is within 15 years for me.

[hellbender]

If you look at all the jobs which are Safe/No Risk, most of them also can be found in 3rd World Countries (although there may be fewer of them there, and the pay is lower). Those are not the jobs which made America a world power and the most prosperous nation in history. Even those “safe” jobs are well paid today only because there are enough of the other jobs to keep the economy booming—for the time being. You simply can’t be a world power if your only “safe” jobs are architect, actor, dentist, car mechanic, etc.

[rb22982]

That’s true of any year though, not just now. I will tell you as an operations mgr for a retail chain in 18 states, the last year by far has been the toughest to retain staff due to people leaving for better jobs. This includes the cashier making $8 an hour to the store manager making $60k a year + bonuses. I’d say 5% unemployment rate is probably accurate on the east coast. If you work in residential construction or in manufacturing, you may have a different POV though.

[Momaw Nadon]

My reason for posting this is that my job was recently outsourced.

I am 34 and am contemplating a career in IT.

Are there any opinions on which Information Technology sector or jobs are least likely to be outsourced?

[RetiredArmy]

As the dimocrats start taxing high paying jobs to death for socialized projects, I would not be surprised at all of these type jobs leaving, as well as the people who work in them. I would not be surprised that many people who have money are not already moving their money off shore, and looking for another country to live in. Why work here and pay 50-60% of your $500,000 pay day?

[rb22982]

Areas that require anything hands on is safe and growing. IT Project management appears to be doing well here in NC as well.

[Momaw Nadon]

Areas that require anything hands on is safe and growing. IT Project management appears to be doing well here in NC as well.

Do you have any other examples of IT jobs that may be safe?

[bvw]

Entry level and management. IOW, the not quite competent.

[driftdiver]

The problem is we offshore the low skilled jobs leaving no path for people to become high skilled. Soon we have high skilled and no skilled.

Globalization is only a form of wealth redistribution. The amazing IT companies in India were funded by their government. Why does our government fund the movement of jobs offshore instead of building our economy?

[driftdiver]

“IT Project management appears to be doing well here in NC as well.”

Its only a matter of time. As more of the work is being done offshore the project management will naturally follow. Its already happening in the banking industry.

[proxy_user]

“You are right even more than you have posted that you are. Many who are unemployed do not file for unemployment benefits, and it is the number of unemployed filing which represents the percentage of unemployed.

This is a common myth. Actually, the published unemployment rate is based on a phone survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They target a certain number of residences in each census district. Since they want it to be accurate, if you don’t answer the phone they send guys who will knock on your door. The employees who run the survey are highly trained and ask a tightly controlled set of non-leading questions.