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Jobs being taken abroad Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/0803/25special_nethaway.htmlhttp://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/0803/25special_nethaway.html
AJC.COM SPECIAL
U.S. college grads see jobs being taken abroad
"America's white-collar workers should not feel too smug. They can be replaced by cheaper foreign workers. That process is under way."
By ROWLAND NETHAWAY
The future of American workers, if they are lucky enough to land a job, lies with multinational companies that rely heavily on foreign labor.
It's too late to worry about losing U.S. manufacturing jobs to Mexico as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Mexico's workers now are in a panic over losing their NAFTA-generated manufacturing jobs to China, the world's new global manufacturing center.
America's white-collar workers should not feel too smug. They can be replaced by cheaper foreign workers. That process is under way.
Foreign colleges, particularly in India and other Asian nations, are turning out graduates who have dedicated their lives to achieving the highest attainable levels of academic learning with the goal of landing a job either in the United States or with a U.S. company. Their efforts are paying off.
Only the healthiest Americans will have missed the growing number of foreign doctors now helping staff the nation's hospitals.
America's high-tech industries are hiring more and more foreign workers to write computer programs, design electronics and run research and development projects. And these are jobs in the United States that normally would go to skilled American workers with college degrees.
More and more technical support jobs for American companies now are located overseas.
A recent USA Today article by Michelle Kessler and Stephanie Armour reported that jobs done by accountants, financial analysts, home loan processors, claims adjusters, architectural drafters and many others now are being done by inexpensive workers in foreign countries.
"These include high-paying, highly sought-after jobs that often require advanced degrees and years of study to attain," said the Kessler-Armour article. "But instead of paying six-figure salaries to trained workers in America, more companies are shelling out $10,000 to $20,000 to get cheaper employees an ocean away."
As if to confirm that observation, a recent news story in the Houston Chronicle by Wendy Lee reported that Renata Escovar, a Rice University economics graduate, was turned down for a waitressing job and Chisom Uluh, a University of Houston graduate with a communication degree, now is selling mattresses.
"Such experiences have become commonplace among college graduates facing the most dismal job market in nearly a decade," Lee wrote. She said many new college graduates now are selling clothes, serving food or taking other similar jobs they thought they had left behind once they earned they college diplomas.
Many lower-level service and manual labor jobs in the United States are being scooped up by both legal and illegal immigrants. Employer sanctions for hiring illegal immigrants are rarely enforced since there are no nationwide worker-identity standards.
The logic that moved American manufacturing jobs in textiles, furniture, sporting goods, stoves, refrigerators and much more to Mexico and other countries now is being applied to white collar jobs. Foreign workers are paid less, which is necessary for many businesses that compete in the global economy. To survive, all businesses must remain competitive and profitable.
As American manufacturing jobs became established in Mexico, wages for Mexican workers rose along with the nation's standard of living.
Since China joined the World Trade Organization, however, many U.S. multinational companies now hire Chinese workers who do the same jobs for several hundred percent less than Mexican workers.
Americans workers may soon be faced with the if-you-can't-beat-them-join-them choice in the brave, new multinational, global marketplace.
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Rowland Nethaway is the Waco Tribune-Herald editor.
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