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Where have jobs gone?
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Outsourcing takes employment away from current, future workers
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By Jessica Greger ~ Star-Gazette Editorial ~ June 6, 2005
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America is full of business. Right? America is the land of opportunity, and foreigners have immigrated here to start new lives. Right? Well, our economy and businesses happen to be turning toward a different method of acquiring employees that could eventually affect teens. This trend is called job outsourcing.
Job outsourcing is a process companies use to protect their company's profit margins. Businesses in several countries do this, including the United States. It helps businesses but decreases job opportunities to citizens in the thriving country. As a result, money goes overseas to pay a poor family's wages when we have starving, homeless people right here.
Outsourcing may help companies, but it's hurting the economy. According to Michelle Chen, a journalist for Z Mag, since 2000 the American economy has seen a net loss of 1.6 million private-sector jobs.
Manufacturing is a focus of the outsourcing trend. Factories overseas are exploiting low-wage labor. Chen also says, "Factory workers, who have seen the number of jobs in their sector dwindle by 11 percent in the past decade and unemployment jump 36 percent since 2000, are understandably shaken."
Meanwhile, some jobs are being replaced by machines. These piles of bolts and steel do more work in a shorter amount of time and don't complain about low wages or long hours. The new technology requires workers to obtain specific skills to operate the systems.
This shift to machines thins the job pool, making it even harder for average Americans, especially us young adults, to find a good-paying job. However, those in Thailand are having no problems packaging our cereal.
The American economy is suffering, and it's starting to show. Wealth is shifting into fewer hands as jobs become scarcer. The Bureau of Labor Statistics conducted a study of worker displacement from 2001 to 2003 and found that 60 percent of the affected workers had found new jobs, but more than half were earning less in their new jobs, some as much as 20 percent less. As a result, many Americans are turning to part-time work just to get by.
Despite the negatives, outsourcing has some benefits, but only for the countries where those jobs are going.
Job sourcing supports poor countries by providing an increase in employment. It builds up their economies and helps feed families. This method seems to save money that can be invested in other areas, such as sales and marketing - often creating new jobs. It also provides products at a cheaper price for Americans.
With employment being shipped to countries such as India, Thailand, China, Russia and Mexico, the future doesn't look bright. Analysts claim that the number of jobs being lost is compensated by the number of new jobs. This sounds good but in reality doesn't seem to be happening.
The unemployment rate doesn't seem to be dropping, and this could pose a problem for young generations when they graduate from high school or college.
Thomas L. Friedman says in his new book, "The World is Flat," that instead of parents telling their kids to finish their dinners because people are going hungry in China, tell them to finish their homework because people are trying to steal their jobs in China.
A possible solution may be to see the effects of job outsourcing and try to stop them before they occur. We can buy homemade goods from small, private companies. Wal-Mart is a big participant in job outsourcing, and by being aware of these businesses we can help control our destiny. Expanding exports and minimizing imports can increase domestic wealth, reduce the number of overseas jobs, create higher wages at home and create more opportunity.
Whatever the solution, the first step is to identify the problem. Taking jobs away from hard-working Americans and maturing teens should not be an option. If we all work together, job outsourcing might be a diminishing thought in the minds of future generations
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