
The Outsourcing Report - The Trouble with Outsourcing
Economists, politicians and corporate consultants keep assuring us that the current trend towards outsourcing jobs abroad is ultimately good for everyone and for the global economy. But what if you are the one who has lost your job to cheaper labor abroad? What are the real costs to you and your family and what do these costs tell us about the real trouble with outsourcing?
The second episode of "The Outsourcing Report: Exporting America's Future" presents some critical views on the global job shift.
Hosted by political satirist and PBS host Will Durst, "The Trouble with Outsourcing" tells personal stories of workers whose manufacturing and high tech jobs have been outsourced from under them and presents pointed views from leaders who urge Americans to pay attention to rapidly increasing job loss.
As the stories of Joe, the sugar plant factory worker, Teresa, a high-tech manufacturing supervisor, and Ben, a database manager, reveal, the middle class is taking the brunt of the current outsourcing epidemic. Explains New Jersey State Senator Shirley Turner, "The blue collar jobs are gone, now they're working on the white collar jobs, and the middle class is being squeezed right out of existence." And, when a high tech programmer loses his job in his mid-50s, will he want to retrain only to risk being outsourced again?
In fact, current outsourcing statistics paint a vastly different picture than the rosy outlook of our politicians.
1. 57% of displaced workers can't find another job that pays as much.
2. By the year 2015, 259,000 management positions will be moved offshore.
3. In 2005, more than 100,000 information and technology jobs moved offshore.