Oh, I also noticed this gloomy article on the AFL-CIO blog:
Corporations Will Ship 2.4 Million High-Tech and Professional Jobs Overseas by 2015 According to the Bureau of National Affairs Daily Labor Report (subscription required):
"Growth in the offshoring of information technology, business office, and other service-providing occupations will cause the loss of an estimated 2.4 million jobs in some 250 U.S. cities between 2004 and 2015, according to a report by the Brookings Institution.The most susceptible areas include Boston, Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, Dallas, San Francisco, and Seattle because they have higher proportions of residents employed in computer programming, software engineering, accounting, telemarketing and other occupations that are highly susceptible to being offshored.
The offshoring of service jobs, including ones held by college-educated professionals who previously thought their jobs were immune to foreign competition, has “created a new source of job insecurity,” and the movement of work to other countries is expected to grow over the coming decade, especially in information services and “back-office” services, the study said."
Michigan understands all too well the effects of offshoring. It's a race to the bottom none of us wish on anyone.
3 comments:
It's a race to the bottom none of us wish on anyone.
No truer words.
As a software professional myself (and one who is over 40 to boot), it's a constant battle to acquire skills and remain innovative. The 'light at the end-o-the-tunnel', if there is one, is that the quality of work produced by on-shore developers far out does that of their off-shore counterparts--levels the playing field a bit. But even that advantage is not likely to remain an advantage for long. [sigh]
Kathy, you've just ruined the day of this Boston-area, high-tech worker. :-(
Fellas, sorry to be the bearer of bad news. It's getting harder and harder to pick a career anymore. Education used to pretty much guarantee a good income for life, but not anymore. Those janitors in Houston who fought to unionize were on the right track. If we can't prevent globalization, then we have to concentrate on raising the salaries of those jobs that can't be sent out of the country.
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