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Angela McCray
Issue date: 4/22/05 Section: Voices
One of the hot topics in the 2004 presidential election was outsourcing. Some people see it as a way to compete in the global market more efficiently while others see outsourcing as cause for lost jobs in America.
The most well-known fields being outsourced are manufacturing jobs, information technology professionals and customer service departments. However, you may not realize that there are many other fields starting to move overseas that could affect your job. According to Outsourcing.com, administration functions are running a close second to IT functions. Fifty percent of the companies they surveyed said they currently outsource the administration function, followed by 24 percent saying they outsource human resources functions. Also in the business field, 21 percent of the respondents are expecting to outsource the distribution and logistics functions.
Attention all of you medical researchers and engineers don't stop reading, yet. Many pharmaceutical companies are outsourcing research and development to Asian biotech companies in order to cut the outrageous cost of bringing a new drug to the market. Namely, Procter & Gamble Co., as noted by Business Week, says "it wants half of its new product ideas to be generated from outside by 2010, compared with 20 percent now."
On the engineering side, companies such as Dell produce very little of the new innovations in design, while Hewlett-Packard contributes some to its new developments, but co-develops many products with outside foreign companies. There are some companies, however, that put a limit on how much they outsource, such as Motorola. They outsource the designs of cheaper phones but maintain control over the high-tech models.
So, what are the benefits to outsourcing? Well, the obvious benefit is lower costs; which is the result of lower wages, the strength of the U.S. dollar, and lower cost of operations in foreign countries. Also, in our economy greater competition allows the reallocation of labor and capital to more profitable sectors of the economy. Outsourcing low-level jobs can create this redistribution creating higher-paying jobs in the U.S. This translates into MORE MONEY and higher level work for college graduates like us.
The most well-known fields being outsourced are manufacturing jobs, information technology professionals and customer service departments. However, you may not realize that there are many other fields starting to move overseas that could affect your job. According to Outsourcing.com, administration functions are running a close second to IT functions. Fifty percent of the companies they surveyed said they currently outsource the administration function, followed by 24 percent saying they outsource human resources functions. Also in the business field, 21 percent of the respondents are expecting to outsource the distribution and logistics functions.
Attention all of you medical researchers and engineers don't stop reading, yet. Many pharmaceutical companies are outsourcing research and development to Asian biotech companies in order to cut the outrageous cost of bringing a new drug to the market. Namely, Procter & Gamble Co., as noted by Business Week, says "it wants half of its new product ideas to be generated from outside by 2010, compared with 20 percent now."
On the engineering side, companies such as Dell produce very little of the new innovations in design, while Hewlett-Packard contributes some to its new developments, but co-develops many products with outside foreign companies. There are some companies, however, that put a limit on how much they outsource, such as Motorola. They outsource the designs of cheaper phones but maintain control over the high-tech models.
So, what are the benefits to outsourcing? Well, the obvious benefit is lower costs; which is the result of lower wages, the strength of the U.S. dollar, and lower cost of operations in foreign countries. Also, in our economy greater competition allows the reallocation of labor and capital to more profitable sectors of the economy. Outsourcing low-level jobs can create this redistribution creating higher-paying jobs in the U.S. This translates into MORE MONEY and higher level work for college graduates like us.