Via outsourcingstrategy.org– from the McKinsey Quarterly:
“Many people in the United States have looked at the enormous US trade deficit and concluded that a flood of imported goods from China and the offshoring of services to India are to blame for the loss of US jobs. CNN’s Lou Dobbs has called the problem “a clear call to our business and political leaders that our trade policies simply are not working.”1 The issue isn’t the concern solely of US policy makers: the same fears about trade are rampant throughout Europe and Japan, while protectionist sentiment is rising around the world.
“But trade, particularly rising imports of goods and services, didn’t destroy the vast majority of the jobs lost in the United States since 2000. We analyzed detailed trade and industry data to estimate the extent of job dislocation due to offshoring in the manufacturing and service sectors from 2000 to 2003. This work was the first complete analysis of how the economic downturn, imports, exports, and global competition interact—directly and indirectly—to affect employment.
So who or what’s to blame? Read the article >>