ShareThisBy JONATHAN B. COX
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Companies are moving more engineering, design and other advanced jobs overseas because they can't find enough talent here, a new Duke University study found.
The report, "The Globalization of White-Collar Work," challenges assumptions about offshoring, that companies move jobs only to cut costs. And it suggests that offshoring might not hurt U.S. workers.
"No longer is offshoring all about moving jobs elsewhere," said the study, which examined 530 companies in the U.S. and Europe. "Increasingly, it's about sourcing talent everywhere."
Doesn't offshoring just affect jobs that require few skills? It did. Companies began by moving manufacturing and work such as credit card processing to countries with lower costs. They gained more experience and became more willing to move chip design, financial and other work considered "core."
Is that bad for workers here? Not according to the report. Companies are continuing to create jobs here, they're just not finding enough workers with the skills to fill them. Too few students are getting advanced degrees in science and math; and companies can't import enough foreign workers because of visa limits. On average, offshoring projects that involved "high skilled" functions also created one job in the U.S., the study said. When administrative functions were moved offshore, the U.S. lost 23 jobs per project.
What does it mean? "There is an internationalization of talent under way," said Arie Y. Lewin, a professor at Duke's Fuqua School of Business who helped write the report.
Companies worldwide are scouring the globe for the best programmers, engineers and other professionals. Smaller companies are more likely to first offshore jobs that require advanced skills.
What are the obstacles? Companies need better management systems to protect discoveries and integrate work done elsewhere into the organization.
The Duke study used an online methodology and was prepared with management consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton.
