Outsourcing of U.S. jobs to other countries, depending upon who you believe, is wrecking the country or no big deal. Based on data developed by business experts like Peter Drucker, who says three U.S. jobs are created for everyone that is outsourced, I'm inclined to believe that it is not a major concern as a national issue.
As a local issue, if your area has been losing jobs, it's certainly a big deal, hence the confusion about outsourcing--it is a matter of geography. Nationally, we are creating jobs. But in some localities, real jobs are being lost and workers and their families affected materially.
The real question is what to do about it. Hence, insourcing. Insourcing is looking through the other end of the telescope. Instead of bemoaning the loss of jobs, take a look at insourcing, or the jobs and companies that are coming to the United States. If Drucker is right that 3 jobs are being created for every job that leaves, then the real opportunity is to figure out to be attractive to those international companies coming to the United States.
This site is a gem, and worth bookmarking. The Organization for International Investment has compiled state by state statistics on insourcing. In Virginia for example, I found that there are 146,000 insourced jobs, which is a 25% increase over the past five years. In Illinois, 268,400 jobs that represent a 39% increase. In New Hampshire, it's a stunning 38,400 workers with a 43% increase over five years. Insourced jobs provide more than 7% of all jobs in New Hampshire, and the state ranks 4th in the country in terms of per capita insourced jobs.
How do you get insourced jobs? You can bet that those international companies are relying heavily on the Web to do their research. Your community, government, and economic development Web sites need to be attractive, vibrant, well-designed, and professional. They need to tell a good story. One suggestion: create "Welcome" pages in some of the dominant languages of trade (Spanish, French, German, Japanese, and Chinese) would be a good start. It's not expensive, and it will project that your community embraces the global economy.