As manufacturing companies continue to bring their jobs back to the United States, it seems that the technology industry has caught onto the trend as well. In fact, outsourcing in general for the United States has declined for its third year in a row. With a high unemployment rate and a very weak job market, this is great news.
In a survey conducted by BDO USA, LLP, 100 of the U.S. technology chief financial officers were asked if they currently outsourced their manufacturing or services to other countries. Of those 100, only 32 percent of them said that they currently outsource. That’s nearly half of the 62 percent that said they outsourced in 2009. Furthermore, 80 percent stated that they were unlikely to outsource their jobs in the near future.
To top off the good news, most of the leading tech companies in the industry intend to boost their employment numbers in 2012. In fact, 50 percent of the surveyed CFO’s plan to hire more workers this year. While some companies [note APPLE] state that it is not their responsibility to bring jobs to the American job market, some leaders are stepping up to the challenge and are attempting to boost employment numbers. Paul Heiselmann, partner in the Technology and Life Sciences practice at BDO USA, LLP, was quoted in Market Wath saying, “with unemployment numbers still hovering above 8 percent, pressure is mounting from Washington to bring jobs home. The tech industry seems to be moving in that direction, which is good news for U.S. job seekers.”
“Bringing services and manufacturing back to the U.S. is also a smart move for tech companies looking to improve the quality of service and reduce exposure to international risks and major supply chain disruptions.” As stated earlier, this is all great news for U.S. workers currently in or trying to get into the technology industry. The United States needs jobs and who better to supply them then American companies?
In an interesting shift of numbers, the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs has decreased quite a bit in the past couple of years. Where in 2009 54 percent of manufacturing jobs were outsourced, now in 2012 only 33 percent are outsourced as reported by Market Watch. Some cite the natural disasters that occurred in areas where outsourcing was heavy as a probable reason for the decrease. For instance, the recent natural disasters that struck Thailand and Japan last year caused a major delay in supply chains that are still not 100 percent fixed today.
This may have also caused the return to India as the leading country for outsourced work for the U.S. Back in 2011, only 29 percent of the companies surveyed said they outsourced to India. Today in 2012, that percentage has risen to 62 percent which is more than double where it was last year. Even still, the majority of companies leading the technology industry have decided to keep their jobs in the United States. One can hope that this shift will benefit the U.S. job market and possibly inspire other industries to keep their jobs at home too.
SOURCE: Market Watch
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