Michael Baier ([log in to unmask]) wrote: : I recently move from Germany to the US. : What scares me, that most labels that I see have : Made in China, Korea, India, Bangladesh. : Welcome to globalization. : Even if you want to, the products are not manufactured in the US anymore. : You can't get them from anybody that produces here. Most manufacturing jobs have already been relocated offshore to take advantage of cheaper labor. Now IT and IT-enabled jobs are also being relocated offshore to take advntage of cheaper labor: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-8324464.html India becoming world's back office - Tech News - CNET.com [snip] "India's latest export: IT-enabled services. These include telemarketing, helpdesk support, medical transcription, back-office accounting, payroll management, maintaining legal databases, insurance claim and credit-card processing, animation, and higher-end engineering design--all of which can be delivered by phone, computer and the Internet. [snip] Call center services can even extend to emotional help, as Bangalore IT-firm Phoenix Global Solutions plans to do. It has hired 50 people for a pilot project to counsel troubled Americans." How thoughtful. : : Seems like most companies are only in the service sector but not in : producing. : When calling hotlines or 800-No's you reach somebody, that hardly speaks : English. I know, that is bad for a German to say but whatever language they : talk on the phone, it is not English. My wife, she is American, can't : understand it mostly either. : You're probably reaching someone in India... http://iwsun4.infoworld.com/articles/fe/xml/01/08/20/010820feindia.xml The back office moves to India [snip] The U.S. economic slowdown is likely to be a boon to India's IT-enabled services providers. "The slowdown will impact us positively because companies need to take advantage of the leveraged costs of outsourcing to be in a position to consistently shore up their bottom lines quarter to quarter," says Meena Ganesh, director and co-founder of CustomerAsset in Bangalore. [snip] Revenue from IT-enabled services is likely to continue to grow in India despite -- or because of -- the U.S. slowdown, but it is likely to be a low-profile activity, because most customers are wary of being named. "It doesn't make for good public relations in the U.S. market to be seen to be moving jobs outside the United States, even if it makes great economic sense," says a representative for a U.S. company that outsources customer support to India." CEOs now have a quick fix when they see they're not going to make their numbers: offshore outsourcing. http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2865181,00.html ZDNet: Tech Update: Enterprise Applications / Global services jobs landing in India "BOMBAY, India (Reuters) - For once, tech gurus may be guilty of underplaying how much the Internet will change your life. Especially if you live in a moderate- to high-income country, are of modest to moderate intelligence, and work at a service industry job that can be done more cheaply -- and possibly better -- by some bright eager beaver in Bangalore. Or Madras, Delhi, Bombay -- anywhere in India to which globally active banks, insurance companies, airlines or credit card companies shift their most labor-intensive operations. The telecommunications revolution has made it possible for functions such as insurance claims processing, accounting, order taking or customer support to be done from anywhere. The economics of global competition will ensure they are. Tech researcher Gartner recently forecast that by December more than 80 percent of multinationals will use IT outsourcing to save money, overcome skills shortages or increase flexibility. Without a doubt, much of that work is headed to India. "Today India is the dominant player, with a greater than $6.2 billion (IT service) export industry, more than 900 software export firms and approximately 415,000 English-literate IT professionals," the report said. Gartner Dataquest forecasts the market for this type of service, which the industry calls global business process outsourcing, (BPO), will grow to $543 billion in 2004, at a compound annual growth rate of 21 percent. BPO operations in India are being set up by listed Indian companies, such as Infosys Technologies and Wipro Ltd., and by foreign multinationals themselves. "Companies like GE, American Express and British Airways have successfully demonstrated the benefits of the model, with total savings of a few hundred million dollars between them," Kandathil Jacob, a visiting professor at the management school at Bombay's Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), wrote recently. Citibank, Dell Computers, Oracle and Lufthansa are among the other firms that have set up service centers in India, staffed by college graduates delighted to land a job paying $204-$245 a month. [snip] Some business groups estimate a large multinational can typically recoup within a month the cost of setting up 10,000-strong operations in India. And the threat of disorder, posed by tension with neighboring Pakistan and religious riots in the western state of Gujarat, does not outweigh the savings gained by transferring big chunks of back office and call center operations to India. [snip] More problematic are government curbs on Internet telephony. One can use VoIP to call either a phone or PC abroad, making the technology accessible to the IT-enabled services industry. But PC-to-phone calls are barred in India. "The intention right now is to make it very restrictive," Supreme Court advocate Pavan Duggal told the VoIP India 2002 seminar. If you're an ordinary office worker in a U.S., European or upper income Asian nation, your job could depend on how long those restrictions last." : So, how shall we buy American? What is still made in the US? : A bigger concern is how you keep your job, given the offshore outsourcing. --Jerry Leslie (my opinions are strictly my own) Note: [log in to unmask] is invalid for email * To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, * * etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *