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Individuals follow corporations in offshoring
June 2, 2007
Offshoring could lead to a catastrophe for workers in developed countries—that’s a point I made in my June Editor’s Note and in previous blog postings. Electronic News has specific bad news, as it reports on layoffs a IBM, Motorola and Tundra. In particular, IBM laid off 1,570 people on Wednesday, increasing its total job cuts this quarter to a total of 3,023 jobs.
Reports Electronic News, IBM’s reduction strategy has brought about some opposition: “Alliance at IBM, an AFL/CIO-related worker's union, has been publicly combating what it sees as threats to the company's United States-based jobs. According to the group's Web site, its aim is to ‘challenge IBM on the many issues facing employees from off-shoring and job security to working conditions and company policy.’"
The article continues, “The group's off-shoring fears do not seem to be unwarranted. Last year, IBM announced plans to triple its investment in India to $6 billion over the next three years, the largest sum ever committed to the country by a U.S. company. At the time, IBM said it planned to make India "a cornerstone" in the computer service superpower's global network.”
It turns out that big companies like IBM aren’t the only entities engaged in offshoring. In an article titled “Outsourcing Your Life” in today’s Wall Street Journal, Ellen Gamerman reports that individuals and families are taking their to-do lists global: “When David San Filippo decided to create a tribute video in honor of his sister's wedding, he could have gotten a recommendation from a friend or looked up video editors in the phone book. Instead, he did what big corporations have been doing for more than a decade: sent the work offshore.”
Gamerman reports that “Such ‘personal offshoring’ is still new and represents a tiny fraction of the more than $20 billion overseas outsourcing industry. But management consultants and economists say it's likely to evolve into a larger niche as offshore workers identify the opportunities.” Illustrators, tutors, bookkeepers, and Web designers, as well as video producers, are a few of the offshore service providers who have been successfully employed by US individuals.
Posted by Rick Nelson on June 2, 2007 | Comments (0)
