Spencer Uresk's Technology Blog

Where are all the White Collar Jobs?

According to a recent CNN/MONEY article, a lot of our jobs are moving overseas.

These are jobs previously safe from cheap foreign labor. Now it appears coveted jobs in IT, Finance, Accounting, and other professional areas are moving overseas. Companies looking to cut costs are eyeing the low cost of labor in countries such as China, India, and the Philipines, where there are many unemployed yet highly skilled and trained workers.

I have yet to see any case studies showing the cost-savings of moving IT/Finance jobs overseas, but I do know that call centers and telemarketers pay only 25% of what they would in America, by moving them to India. Ouch. I wonder if the average IT/Finance worker in America is ready to take a 75% pay cut?

Implications for the United States?

That we will have fewer jobs in the short run is obvious. However, some other questions to think about:

- Will our economy recover if we keep losing high-paying jobs to other countries?

- If consumer spending drops as a result of high unemployment, will corporations suffer as a result? Will this lead to more jobs being shipped overseas?

- Are American corporations willing to push much of the rest of the nation into poverty in order to cut labor costs?

I'm a big fan of cutting unnecessary costs in a company, but I have to wonder... At what point does it become too much?

posted by Spencer @ 11:32 PM