It Offshoring and American Labor

Americanhttp://abs.sagepub.com/ Scientist Behavioral

IT Offshoring and American Labor
William Aspray American Behavioral Scientist 2010 53: 962 DOI: 10.1177/0002764209356232 The online version of this article can be found at: http://abs.sagepub.com/content/53/7/962

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Articles

IT Offshoring and American Labor
William Aspray1

American Behavioral Scientist 53(7) 962–982 © 2010 SAGE Publications Reprints and permission: http://www. sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0002764209356232 http://abs.sagepub.com

Abstract This article presents an overview of the offshoring of information technology (IT), especially software and IT-enabled services, and its impacts on American labor. Topics include the history of offshoring politics in the United States, differences in attitudes between politicians and economists in their attitudes about the severity of the offshoring “problem,” national differences in types of offshoring providers, technological and other drivers of offshoring, reasons to offshore, characteristics of work amenable to offshoring, the employment impact in the United States, political and educational responses to offshoring in the United States, and the roles of labor unions and big business. Keywords offshoring, information technology, educational responses, political responses, labor This article addresses the offshoring of information technology (IT), especially software and IT-enabled

Citations: http://abs.sagepub.com/content/53/7/962.refs.html >> Version of Record - Feb 9, 2010 What is This? Downloaded from abs.sagepub.com at University of Waikato Library on January 22, 2013 Articles Corresponding Author: William Aspray, University of Texas at Austin, 1616 Guadalupe St., D8600, Austin TX 78701 Email: [e-mail] Downloaded from abs.sagepub.com at University of Waikato Library on January 22, 2013 How Much Work Is Offshored, and What Is Its Labor Impact? It is difficult to obtain good data about how much IT work is offshored and what its impact is on the American labor force (Aspray et al., 2006, chap Downloaded from abs.sagepub.com at University of Waikato Library on January 22, 2013 964 Downloaded from abs.sagepub.com at University of Waikato Library on January 22, 2013 Aspray 965 United States in 2002 after the dot-com crash but that the numbers of jobs had returned by 2005 to a point that there were more IT jobs in the United States by the spring of 2005 than there were at the highest point in the dot-com boom era (1999) Downloaded from abs.sagepub.com at University of Waikato Library on January 22, 2013 966 National Differences in Types of Offshoring Providers Many countries provide offshoring services to the United States, but these countries can be usefully organized into four categories (Aspray et al., 2006, chap Downloaded from abs.sagepub.com at University of Waikato Library on January 22, 2013 968