‘The handwriting is on the wall,’ writes an IT specialist at the Bank of America. Until recently the bank needed talent so badly it had to outbid rivals. But last fall, his entire 15-engineer team was told their jobs were redundant. Bank of America has already slashed 3,700 of its 25,000 technical and back-office job and more are to follow.Corporate downsizings are nothingnew. These layoffs, though, aren't justhappening because demand has driedup; one-third ofthose jobs are headedto India, where work that costs $100an hour in the US gets done for $20.At Infosys Technologies Ltd. inBangalore, India, 250 engineers aredeveloping computer applications forBank of America. About 1,600kmnorth, at Wipro Spectramind Ltd.,2,500 young college-educated menand women are checking accidentreports for an insurance company andproviding help-desk support for a biginternet service provider - all at a costup to 60% lower than in the USA.It's globalization's next phase - andone of the biggest trends reshapingthe global economy. The first phasestarted two decades ago with thetransfer of manufacturing jobs to economicaliydeveloping countries. Afterthat, simple service work, Iike processingcredit card receipts, and digitalIabor, like writing software code,began fleeing high-cost countries.Now, all kinds of knowledge workcan be done almost anlwhere. Thedriving forces are digitization, theinternet, and high-speed data networksthat circle the globe. By mining
databases over the internet, offshore
staff can check individuals' credit
records, analyse corporate financial
information, and search through
oceans of economic statistics.
The impact of offshore hiring is hard
to measure, since so far a tiny portion
of US white-coilar work has jumped
overseas. Indeed, a case can be made
that the US will see a net gain from this
shift. In the 1990s, the USA had to
import hundreds of thousands of
immigrants to ease engineering shortages. Now, by sending routine service
and engineering tasks to nations with a
surplus of educated workers, the US
iabor force and capital can be redeployed
to hfher-value industries.
Globalization should also keep service
prices in check, just as it did when
manufacturing went offshore.
Companies will be able to reduce
overheads and improve efficiency.
'Our comparative advantage may shift
to other fields,' says economist Robert
Lipsey, 'and if productivity is high,
then the US will maintain a high standard
of living.' By encouraging economic
development in nations such as
India, meanwhile, US companies wiil
have expanded foreign markets for
their goods and services.
Outsourcing experts say the big job
migration has only just begun. Frances
Karamouzis, research director at
Gartner Inc., expects 40% of the USAs
top 1,000 companies to have an overseas
pilot project under way within
two years. The really big offshore push
won't be until 2010 or so, she predicts.
But if big layoffs result at home, corporations
and the US government will
face a backlash. Some states are already
pushing for legislation to stop pubiic
jobs from being transfered overseas
and now the unions are moving into
the fight to keep jobs at home.
The truth is, the rise of the global
knowledge industry is so recent that
most economists haven't begun to
understand the implications. For
developing nations, the big beneficiaries
will be those offering the speediest
and cheapest telecom links, investorfriendly
policies, and ample college
graduates. In the West, it's far less
clear who will be the big winners and
Iosers. But we'll soon find out.
Glossary
Ioyol/s redundancies
surplus too much f many
backlash strong negative
rea cti o n
AmE VS BTE
labor labour
center centre
fatt autumn
hiring recruitment
transfered transferred
co[[ege university
Unit 7 t
đang được dịch, vui lòng đợi..
