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Since their own web site displays the information that
numbers are difficult to come by because companies are
not required to disclose, I have to wonder how in the
world they obtain the figures they post.
There's a link on that tracker web site that goes to a
page about a man who filmed a documentary on the job
loss situation. On that site, there were some lines
that I found very interesting:
"...<snip>First it was the loss of manufacturing
jobs in the early 1980s, more than 2 million of which
were lost and never returned.
"A similar phenomenon occurred again twenty years
later. This time, nearly 3 million jobs have been lost
since 2000, including technology and white-collar
jobs. And there was more irony ? these were the jobs
for which many who were victims of the first job
exodus had retrained."
That gave me pause. The very types of jobs that are
being offshored today are the types of jobs that were
fallback options for laidoff workers in earlier years.
The workers whose jobs are being offshored today -
what new jobs are they supposed to retrain for?
Financial auditors? If (perhaps I should ask when)
they start offshoring auditor jobs, what next?
Offshoring is eating its way up the food chain. A few
decades ago it involved almost nothing but low-skill
manufacturing jobs. Then as technology improved it
expanded to include skilled manufacturing jobs. Now
it's up to the level of jobs that require degrees,
erasing jobs at the mid management and
engineering/design levels.
The number of jobs that pay high wages and are open to
Americans is shrinking while the population is
increasing. This can't be good in the long run.
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