It has been more than a decade since American presidential candidate Ross Perot mentioned a "huge sucking sound" to America. According to him, offshore outsourcing of American jobs is a problem that must be addressed. Currently, there is a lot more sucking sound, especially in high-tech jobs. The movement of high-tech skilled occupations to other countries in search of cheaper labor poses a threat to the United States. This has the potential to devastate the economy. It is not an option for America to take action to combat this dreadful disease. This essay paper will discuss the necessary actions that the US government should take to stop the migration of the high-tech jobs to other countries.
Actions Strategies
The American government has to engage in negotiating fair trade agreements. The American jobs should be protected by tariffs to stop offshore migration. The problem of free trade is that it inspires free labor movement across countries. This has opened a big door for these jobs to find their way in other countries. Considering this, the massive movement of these jobs to other nations will be discouraged. The government has to find a more level playing field for its skilled workers in engagement with other countries. Tax breaks should be eliminated on the companies that outsource the jobs in quests of stopping the offshore outsourcing of high-tech jobs.
The US government has to formulate laws and regulations at the migration department that will be directed towards inhibiting skilled jobs such as software development from moving out. For example, restrictions could be applied to any citizen wishing to migrate the country and has an educational background in the IT field. Laws that focus on protecting the security and privacy of American people personal information sent to other countries have to be kept in place (Constitutional Rights Foundation, 2005). During President Reagan administration, a policy was made against the Japan country concerning offshore outsourcing, and it proved to be successful. With his increased worries of how the problem was sucking dry the economy of the US, the president decided to put a quota on the importation of Japanese cars into the country. As Dobbs documents in his book, the policy made the Japans build corporations and make investments in America (Dobbs, 2004). This was not only beneficial in improving foreign direct investment but also reduced the migration of the skilled workers. This is an example of how an effective and appropriate policy can help to stop the offshore outsourcing of the high-tech workers.
The primary reason that motivates the migration is the aspect of cheap labor overseas. Therefore, the government should strive at attaining a less expensive labor market. This could be done by revising the wage laws in of the country. Firms are constantly seeking ways of increasing their revenue and reducing their total costs. Labor is one of the costs that eats into the revenue of a company and if there is room to reduce it no one will hesitate in taking the strategic move. Dobbs (2004) argues that offshore outsourcing unfairly forces the US working individuals to have a stiff competition with the low-wage jobs in the developing countries. He cites that in America, for example, the hourly wage for people working in the manufacturing industry is $16 while that in China is $1. The big difference is what will drive out the high-tech jobs to overseas in quests of maximizing revenues.
Besides, the country has to promote the growth of the high technology jobs in the country. This will significantly inhibit migration. There is an essential need to grow a robust knowledge transfer mechanism to create more jobs. Seeking to retain its workforce should be a priority. Rich collaborations between the government and technologies should be designed to exploit the capabilities of encouraging investment in the technological industry. The effort requires an understanding of the existing technologies and the business needs to make a provision for efficient strategic implementation and a result driven collaborative developments. Hence, there will be the delivery of stable software jobs at affordable wage rates.
Conclusion
With the ongoing increased demand for the high technology jobs overseas, a challenging situation arises at home country, and this could culminate to catastrophic results to the US economy. The government, therefore, should implement actions that will engineer a less expensive labor market which will discourage offshore outsourcing.
References
Constitutional Rights Foundation. (2005). Outsourcing Jobs to Other Countries: Is Globalization a Threat to American Workers? http://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of-rights-in-action/bria-21-3-c-outsourcing-jobs-to-other-countries-is-globalization-a-threat-to-american-workers.html
Dobbs, L. (2004). Exporting America: Why Corporate Greed Is Shipping American Jobs Overseas. (1st ed.). New York, N.Y. ; Boston, Mass.: Warner books.
