Despite a recent surge in offshoring and its emergence as a key issue this election season, there remains little evidence that it is significantly affecting the U.S. economy, according to a new study.
A report released last week by the Government Accountability Office called offshoring a “small but growing trend” relative to U.S. imports of other services. The practice — sometimes also called outsourcing — generally refers to replacing services produced domestically with services imported from abroad, and has become most notably symbolized by the loss of certain technology and customer service call-center jobs to India. After an eight-month study, the GAO found that while outsourcing may be on the rise, there remain few accurate means to quantify jobs lost to offshoring or measure the net gains and losses for the U.S. economy.
“Offshoring causes controversy because some jobs are lost immediately and visibly, while other potential impacts such as lower costs, job creation in other sectors, and economic growth are less visible, more diffuse and typically delayed,” the report stated.
For this complete story, please visit Study: Offshoring Has Little Effect on U.S. Economy.
