What does the recent heated debate about outsourcing have to do with telework? Plenty, if you connect just a few dots.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a lobbying group representing U.S. businesses, offers their perspectives on the debate in their new report, Jobs, Trade, Sourcing, and the Future of the American Workforce, "Political rhetoric aside, the nation's knowledge workers have not lost significant job opportunities to foreign competitors. The unemployment rate among Americans with a four-year college degree is just 2.9 percent."

Dell is a prime example. As reported in Dell Outsources Most New Jobs Overseas by Gene J. Koprowski (TechNewsWorld, 04/14/04), Dell's shipments to China have grown 36 percent in the quarter ended Jan. 30th. Staffing in China has increased in manufacturing, sales, and support, "but not in high-end work like design or management. " This article quotes the report's recommendation that "The way to spur job creation here at home is by reducing indirect business costs – excessive and duplicate regulations; junk lawsuits; lingering tax and accounting uncertainties – and by expanding research and development initiatives"  

Reducing indirect costs? Yes, that would help. How about making it inexpensive and convenient for foreign corporations (and domestic ones for that matter!) to work with our nation's knowledge workers from afar? We have the know-how, but in too many cases we don't have the bandwidth to support it yet.

Among the report's less cited conclusions, "The recent extension of worldwide sourcing from manufacturing to white-collar IT jobs does not threaten America's technological leadership - yet our serious slippage in education and broadband application does."

India is taking the broadband challenge seriously, as indicated by N Vidyasagar in Can India join broadband race?(Times News Network, April 12). In it he quotes Sujit Kumar, chairman of CII's national broadband committee, saying "China will soon overtake Japan and even US because broadband was a priority. We need a similar national broadband policy."

Try Googling News on "national broadband policy" yourself for the latest press. I got a pitiful FIVE results, while "offshore outsourcing" yielded 710 results.

6:12:22 PM    
comment []  trackback []