US Economy: Outsourcing

Randy Black writes: Several WAISers have recently lamented the concept of American job loses via outsourcing. The truth be known, the controversy appears to be a myth, according to the National Center for Policy Analysis.   Bruce Bartlett, senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, concludes: Outsourcing is not a new concept. Blue-collar manufacturing jobs have been outsourced for 100 years. Textile jobs in South Carolina today were originally outsourced from Massachusetts. While the transition was painful for Massachusetts textile workers in the short run, they soon found better jobs in new industries. The same will be true as South Carolina textile jobs are outsourced to China. The truth is that outsourcing is far less of a threat to American workers than they imagine. Their apprehension over outsourcing will diminish as the economic expansion reduces the unemployment rate.

The benefits of outsourcing to American workers and the U.S. economy greatly outweigh the costs.
Outsourcing versus Insourcing. Countries around the world are outsourcing their jobs to the United States in huge numbers, according to the Organization for International Investment:

• For the past 15 years, corporations have moved jobs to the United States at a faster rate than jobs have left, for an 82 percent increase in insourced jobs compared to a 23 percent increase in outsourced jobs. Manufacturing jobs have been insourced at an even faster pace than service jobs, more than doubling over the period (though beginning from a smaller base).
• Jobs insourced to the United States increased from 4.9 million in 1991 to 6.4 million in 2001.