Outsourcing: Problems and Solutions
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Outsourcing: Problems and Solutions
Introduction
As todays young adults are graduating from high school and college, what is one of their first choices? Where are they going to get a job? Some of todays big jobs are being taken from the United States and sent to countries overseas. So where does that leave our young adults? They may have to move away from home and to not be with their families. Are you aware of the other options to this? A great exception to this outsourcing can be to send these positions to rural areas, instead of foreign countries.
Outsourcing
Every year thousands of Americans become unemployed. Some of these positions are inevitable, such as new technologies being developed, but they do not all have to be. Outsourcing, or off-shoring as it could be called, is the process of sending jobs originating in the United States to foreign countries overseas. Companies do this because in those countries they can achieve more work with cheaper wages for employees. But is it all worth it?
Outsourcing is not a new concept. It has been around for a few years. It started with the Information Technology (IT) jobs and worked its way into other areas. Even our pineapples are not safe from outsourcing anymore. “Last month Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. announced its pineapple operations in Hawaii will cease by mid 2008. The reason? According to the Associated Press, the company stated it is “no longer feasible to grow pineapple in Hawaii because it can be produced for less elsewhere” (Heffner 2006).
“The Defending American Jobs Act of 2004 is being introduced by Rep Bernard Sanders (Ind-Va) with 50 co-sponsors from both republican and democratic parties. Why does this seem necessary? In his press statement, Rep Sanders said: “In my view, it is an insult to the middle class of this country that American taxpayer dollars are being used to provide loans, loan guarantees, grants, tax breaks, and subsidies to huge and profitable corporations who then say to the American people: “Thanks for the welfare, chumps. But were closing your plant and taking your job to China.”ÐIn the year 2000 over 100,000 jobs were outsourced. In 2005 over ÐÐ… million jobs will be affected and within 10 years another 3.3 million will be outsourced. These jobs come from all walks of life: management, business, computer, architecture, life sciences, legal, art design, sales, and office (“Outsourcing affects us all” 2004, para. 3, 5).
In a report done by AngelouEconomics (2004) the largest positions that are at risk are support positions. There are a total of 33 specifics jobs that are at risk for outsourcing. These positions can be arranged into 5 main categories: financial support, computer operations, medical support, back office operations, and engineering support. The main metro areas where these positions are at risk, used to be the envy of our nation during the 1990s. San Diego, San Jose, and Austin have the greatest to lose. They have 9% to 11% of their workforce in the 33 at-risk occupations. Other cities included that are at risk are Cleveland, Houston, Los Angeles, and Sioux Falls, SD; where it has 11.5% of employment in these positions. Thats the highest percentage of statistical area in the United States.
Not all people are happy with the results we are getting by sending jobs overseas. According to Heffner (2006) many American companies are realizing that the work sent overseas does not always get the result they desired. Companies, such as Dell and Capital One, are starting to change their minds and return the work back to the United States after getting complaints of thick accents, poor service, and workers even promising potential customers that they could get unauthorized lines of credit on a Capital One credit card. Companies are not getting quality work on a consistent basis (para. 3). With all the personal and confidential information being processed overseas, identity theft can be big factor. “Last year a disgruntled Pakistani worker upset about back pay threatened to divulge data about patients at a San Francisco hospital” (Schwartz, 2004). She goes on further to say that these countries lack consumer privacy laws. Medical privacy does not really mean anything to them. Things are in the works to require written authorization from consumers themselves so they are aware their data is being shipped overseas and can make a choice if they want that or not. So what can we do about this?
Homesourcing
There is a new alternative to outsourcing. Some dub it “homesourcing.” As many United States companies prepare to export jobs overseas, other companies are working to keep them at home-literally-as a substitute for call centers. According to a recent study by consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton, not only is such homesourcing cheaper than traditional outsourcing,