Workplace issues: offshore outsourcing opinions.

In this election year, continuing media debate about outsourcing is especially focused on the topic of offshore outsourcing of U.S. jobs to countries such as India, China, and Russia. Even as associations are busy determining comprehensive outsourcing strategies for their internal operations (see articles in this issue on outsourcing, page 36, and in-sourcing, page 44), many are also addressing key concerns and questions of members related to global economic trends affecting their industries and professions.

For instance, Virgil Carter, executive director of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, New York City, says that a growing number of ASME members face the potential offshore movement of their jobs. And they are looking to their professional society to provide insight and information about what they can do and what U.S. industry and government should do to ensure jobs of high value remain in the United States.

"Whenever technology becomes a commodity, it tends to move to where it is most economical to produce and provide it," says Carter. "As a professional society, we believe strongly that to continue to compete, the U.S. government will need to support research and development and commercialization of first-generation technologies so that the United States remains a center of innovation in the technical and scientific fields.

"One real challenge for all of us--whether involved in policy, government, or association work--is that because the offshoring phenomenon is relatively new, there is [limited] data about the number and the kinds of jobs going offshore--or for that matter, about those coming on shore," says Carter. "What the data would help everyone better grasp and assess is the magnitude and direction of the offshoring movement and what that suggests in terms of areas in which government and industry should begin to invest."

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One drop in the data bucket is a new study by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), Washington, D.C., that suggests that offshoring provides economic benefits to U.S. businesses. Among the key findings from "The Impact of Offshore IT Software and Services Outsourcing on the U.S. Economy and the IT Industry":

* Worldwide outsourcing of information technology services and software generated an additional 90,000 U.S. jobs in 2003, and new jobs will total 317,000 by 2008.

* Worldwide outsourcing increased real wages in the United States by 0.13 percent in 2003 and will climb to 0.44 percent in 2008.

* Worldwide outsourcing contributes significantly to the U.S. gross domestic product, adding $33.6 billion in 2003 and $124.2 billion by 2008.

Observes ITAA President Harris N. Miller, "Far from being an economic tsunami that washes away domestic IT employment, global sourcing helps companies become more productive and competitive. The savings produced through worldwide sourcing are invested in new products and services, in new market expansion, and, most important, in creating new jobs and increasing real wages for American workers."