India Now Outsourcing IT Jobs to North America
May 27th, 2011US President Barack Obama rode to power on the promise of stopping American jobs from being outsourced to India.
Ironically, the Indian IT and IT services companies targeted by him may actually be bailing out unemployed Americans by hiring thousands in BPO jobs, in a US economy still struggling to cope with the aftermath of the worst recession since World War II. Outsourcing has come full circle.
Take Aegis, the BPO arm of the Mumbai-based conglomerate Essar Group. Aegis is one of the largest Indian employers in the US. It has over 5,000 US citizens on its payroll and plans to hire 10,000 more over the next three years.
“We have 10 centres operating in the US and more than 97 per cent of our employees are US citizens. Our clients are happy to have locals attend to their calls and we will be hiring many more,” said an …
More Businesses Seen Outsourcing to Smalltown USA
March 28th, 2011
Is your small business dealing with an increased workload and more demand from clients and customers? That’s a good thing. But with the economy still uncertain, many of us are leery about taking on full-time employees to help with the workload—even when we’re overwhelmed.
Well, there is a solution—and it’s closer to home than you might think. I first wrote about the trend of “ruralsourcing” on Small Business Trends in the summer of 2010, when several news outlets reported on the practice. Essentially, ruralsourcing means outsourcing jobs—but instead of outsourcing to India or China, the jobs are being outsourced to small and rural communities in the United States.
As the economy slowly picks up steam, I’m happy to report that the ruralsourcing trend continues to grow, according to new research from oDesk, an online global employment platform. oDesk’s latest “Online Employment Report” a monthly analysis of the state …
Free Trade Agreements are Just Band-Aids for Real Latin America Investment Reform
February 23rd, 2011
Exclusive: Look at investment, regulation and tax schemes as core drivers of economic cooperation, says leading LatAm expert
By Tarun George
Jerry Haar, Professor at Florida International University, does not have a very high opinion of the various FTAs between the US and Latin America. With expertise in corporate strategy, regional economic integration and Latin American marketing, he tells us why the Nearshore needs to do much, much more than simply removing tariffs in order to compete globally with the likes of India and China.
Congress’ Tough Talk Has Little Impact on Outsourcing Industry; US Companies Continue to Go Offshore
February 15th, 2011By David Rutchik
Seizing on the combination of political expediency, a certain degree of xenophobia, and a U.S. unemployment figure that remains stubbornly near 10 percent, Congress has initiated both rhetoric and legislative initiatives aimed at impeding the offshore outsourcing industry. Despite these efforts, however, the offshore outsourcing industry continues to prosper as U.S. companies avail themselves of a critical tool in their arsenal to remain globally competitive.
Outsourcing: High Economic Stakes
It is undeniable that the outsourcing industry represents a significant component of the global economy. Forrester Research expects 2011 global business and government spending for IT outsourcing alone to top $254 billion. The Indian portion of that total in 2010 was nearly $64 billion, according to Nasscom, the Indian outsourcing industry trade association. Meanwhile, foreign companies use H1-B and L-1 visas, issued by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services division …
Senator Says US Must Ratify Free Trade With Panama and Colombia, or Risk Losing More Jobs
February 9th, 2011The top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said failure to ratify free-trade accords with key allies Panama and Colombia would further cede market share to countries including China, costing U.S. jobs.
In a letter to congressional colleagues, Senator Richard Lugar said the U.S. is losing its place as the “preferred and logical trading partner” for South America. Canada, which signed its own free trade accord with Colombia last year, could soon replace the U.S. as the country’s main supplier of wheat and machinery, the Indiana Republican added. Unilateral trade preferences for Colombia expire this month.
“The FTAs are increasingly considered by Panamanians and Colombians as a crucible in the bilateral relationships,” Lugar said in the letter dated Feb. 8, which followed a trip by a staff member to both countries. “They serve as a symbolic litmus test …
New Study Says Outsourcing Does Not Take Away US Jobs
January 21st, 2011Most companies say offshoring of jobs has not resulted in higher unemployment domestically. Firms shifting jobs overseas may be responding to a shortage of skilled domestic employees
The sixth annual study on corporations’ offshoring trends was released today by the Center for International Business Education and Research’s (CIBER) Offshoring Research Network (ORN) at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and The Conference Board.
The study is part of ongoing research into the effects of offshoring trends on American competitiveness and reflects the sentiments of business managers as regional economies around the world continue to recover from the global recession and economic upheaval in Europe and Asia.
“Over half of the participants in our survey say offshoring has resulted in no change in the number of domestic jobs in most functions,” said Fuqua Professor of Strategy and International Business Arie Lewin. “The finding that the U.S. software sector has the highest ratio of offshore to domestic employees – almost …
Offshore Outsourcing: An Endangered Species
January 19th, 2011
The ‘farce’ of free enterprise comes under attack in the U.S.
By Kenneth Hess
It’s no longer about greedy American corporate executives – it’s about the long-term effect on the economy and destroying America’s tax breadbasket: The Working Middle Class
If you’re a buyer or seller of offshore services, beware that American voters have your livelihood in their sights. US unemployment numbers in December 2010 stood at over 14.5 million, which is just under 10% of the working population. High unemployment, rampant offshore outsourcing, a rapidly shrinking middle-class tax base, and overall lower spending is putting economic pressure on politicians to make some changes to boost the ailing economy.
Lack of US Tech Jobs Not Due to Falling Demand, but Gaps in High-End Skills
December 16th, 2010Lean, agile, open source – you name it – Latin America, India and China are starting to deliver, while the US falls behind.
By Tarun George
The biggest after-effect of the economic recession in the US is fear of job loss. Tech jobs in this case. That fear has manifested itself through everything from politicians talking tough on outsourcing, to anti-immigrant sentiments, to the new visa restrictions on foreign workers. But evidence now suggests that one of the reasons high-end tech jobs are moving offshore is really the lack of high-end skills to match those jobs.
We spoke with Jerry Luftman, Executive Director and Professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology; and Alok Aggarwal, Chairman and Co-founder of analytics firm Evalueserve, to find out more and why fueling innovation remains the most promising pathway for the U.S. tech community.
The Contrarian: A Modest Offshoring Proposal
December 3rd, 2010By George Tillmann
“The biggest weakness I think we have in America is we have forgotten the long term”, says Larry Fink the founder and CEO of BlackRock, Inc., the world’s largest asset management company. A similar sentiment can be heard from Warren Buffett, the quintessential investor. What does this have to do with offshoring? Offshoring is, I believe, a perfectly acceptable method for cost management – usually. I say usually, because in our current situation, offshoring’s short-term gains could have undesirable long-term consequences.
Obama Talks Tough on Outsourcing US Jobs, But the Real Target is US Corporate Subsidiaries
January 28th, 2010SOURCE: NEWS.OUTLOOKINDIA.COM
In a move that could shake the foundations of India’s IT services industry, US President Barack Obama today said he will end tax breaks to American firms that ship out jobs abroad.
“To encourage… Businesses to stay within our borders, it is time to finally slash the tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas, and give those tax breaks to companies that create jobs right here in the United States of America,” he said in his first State of Union address.
A report by IT consultancy firm Forrester Research estimates that 3.3 million American jobs will be lost to outsourcing in 15 years ending 2015. Already, half of the Indian IT-BPO industry’s USD 71.7 billion revenue comes from the US.
According to Gartner, Indian BPO vendors will command 10 per cent of the total global market share by this year end.
Obama said: “Now, the House has passed a jobs bill …
