A new report shows that the flow of contact-center and other kinds of jobs from the U.S. to other countries has exceeded previous glum assessments. Two university researchers say job losses to outsourcing could top 400,000 by the end of the year.
In this contentious election season, the subject of outsourcing has taken on big importance. Perhaps no field knows the pain better than customer service, which has seen call centers migrate offshore for several years now. But a new report shows that the flow of contact-center and other kinds of jobs from the U.S. to other countries has exceeded previous glum assessments.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that only 4,633 private-sector jobs in companies with more than 50 employees were lost between January and March of this year. Two labor experts, however, place that number much higher.
Through online tracking of media reports, corporate research, and the creation of a database of information on all production shifts announced or confirmed in the media, researchers Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of Labor Education Research at Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, and Stephanie Luce, research director and assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, estimated how many jobs were lost to outsourcing in the first quarter of 2004.
The researchers believe their methodology captures only one-third of all production shifts, in most cases. If that assumption is true, the actual number of jobs lost to outsourcing will top 400,000 by the end of 2004. The team has provided a report to a bipartisan Congressional group looking into the outsourcing issue.
For this complete story, please visit U.S. Call-Center Job Losses Steeper Than Expected.
