Posted on 06/11/2004 5:44:09 PM PDT by Willie Green
"Pretty lame." That's how Thea M. Lee, chief international economist at the AFL-CIO, described a new survey that suggests offshoring of American jobs is less of an economic threat than is popularly believed. Conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the survey found that of the 239,361 people who lost their jobs during the first quarter of the year, only about 2 percent, or 4,633, were sacked for reasons "associated with the movement of work outside the country." That's a reassuring metric. Certainly, if it were accurate, it would go a long way toward quelling the concern that erupted last year over widely publicized cases of Americans losing their jobs to cheaper workers abroad. But, sadly, it may not show the complete picture....
(Excerpt) Read more at siliconvalley.com ...
It's awful lonely back here.
Job #16 since June 2001 starts Monday, 4-6 month assignment hopefully, engineering again.
God is gracious!
Same sort of article appeared in the Milwaukee Journal this AM.
In THAT one, some BLS 'crat admitted that, well, this survey only covers LARGE closings, not small ones, and not "partial layoffs"
So, he said, maybe the actual number is 250,000 instead of 4,500.
Statistically insignificant, of course.
Maybe it's not politically correct to let people know that our jobs are being given away to foreigners... :^(
LOL! Yeah, I think it's pretty obvious that the disorganized drones at BLS bungled this one Big Time. As a first time report, they were probably franticly burning the midnight oil just to cobble together whatever they had and shove it out the door by the release deadline. Nobody paid any attention to whether the numbers actually made sense or not.
Of course, once the Press got a hold of it, their knee-jerk spin machines went into high-gear without giving the actual numbers much thought. Then when reality began to sink in, a lot of folks are winding up with egg on their faces. LOL! What a circus!
Well I can certainly understand how some people would be hypersensitive about this article.
While I'm in a more objective and mellow mood, I kinda feel sorry for Dubya on this one. I don't actually believe that he'd stoop to manipulating the report. The incredulous number is more likely simply inept bureaucratic bungling at the BLS. They gotta lot of work to do to come up with a more credible data collection methodology on this. But it's happening on Dubya's watch, and the poor dude is suffering a credibility gap on the trade and jobs issues. Oh well, it's not as if I didn't try to warn him.
Moderators - we are still waiting for an answer, as to why you wish to bury this current topic.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/726940.cms
THE TIMES OF INDIA
India hits out at US over BPO backlash
AGENCIES[ TUESDAY, JUNE 08, 2004 10:36:10 PM ]
NEW DELHI: Terming it as unfortunate, India on Tuesday hit out at the backlash against business process outsourcing saying it was ironic that the country which was in the forefront of free and liberal trade was resorting to legislations to ban it.
"This is unfortunate. It is ironic that countries which used to be in the forefront of free, open and liberal trade are now even passing legislations to hinder BPO," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath told US-India Business Council's 29th Annual meeting via video conferencing.
Nath quoted authoritative studies to say that outsourcing was infact a win-win situation. While India gained in terms of employment, developed economies benefited in terms of profit.
"If something is mutually beneficial, it would be irrational to block it. BPO is not the only emerging area for India 's strengths, there are a host of other sectors where we welcome to invest and we can focus on," he said.
India 's public response to U.S. legislation to curb outsourcing has been notably tempered, a stark contrast to the heated language that often punctuates the debate over the issue in the United States . One of the few sharply worded statements to come out of India was made earlier this year by the Confederation of Indian Industry, a powerful business lobby, in response to the Senate legislation.
"The passage of the federal law barring outsourcing of U.S. government contracts given by American firms to companies located in India and other countries by the U.S. Senate is unfortunate and unwarranted," the organization said in January.
" India is taking examples from the United States and other developed countries on its path of liberalization and reforms. However, such anti-liberalisation measures, when adopted by developed countries, will lead to greater protections in other sectors, thus impacting global trade flows."
Economists in the United States note that far more jobs have been cut as a result of improved productivity, a weak economy and domestic corporate restructuring than have been lost to foreign outsourcing.
"In the current hysteria about offshore outsourcing, productivity unfortunately is seen in some circles as a four-letter word," the American Electronics Association said in a March report. "The concern about offshoring is very similar to the concerns during the late 1980s and early 1990s in the United States that Japan was going to become the dominant economic and high-technology power of the world. It didn't happen."
Many Indian executives and politicians believe that the offshore controversy will subside after the U.S. presidential election in November. Until then, they say it makes no sense to risk aggravating tensions further, especially when it is unclear whether American protectionist sentiment will lead to any significant curbs on offshore outsourcing this year or beyond, a report in techrepublic.com said
Anyway, there's no sense in beating a dead horse when there are other articles and issues to discuss.
Too many people get emotionally involved in the sideshow spats.
Those present a certain allure for our more lurid curiosities, but from a productivity perspective, they're a counterproductive diversion and complete waste of time.
Yippee!
I'm pretty happy about it, yeah... :)
12 - "But the shear popularity has also created far too much incoherent garbage to wade through, and I try to stick with more legitimate media sources to do some filtering (even though some of those may be somewhat small-scale and off-the-beaten-track.)"
I agree.
BTW, I appreciate your regular postings of these type of articles, though I don't always respond to you personally.
I get very tired of free-traitors selling my country and my work for their profit.
Many Thanks.
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