Rose Baker, Ki Seok Jeon, & David Passmore
The presentation, the report, the videos, the discussion, and the contacts...
from Penn State's Institute for Research in Training & Development
Précis of presentation   Slides supporting presentation

Offshoring refers to the movement of home–country jobs to another country—whether or not those jobs go to another company. General Electric offshores jobs when it moves a factory to China. JP Morgan Chase offshores jobs when it does security analysis at its offices in India instead of in New York.

Pennsylvania service-producing occupations at risk for offshoring were identified in this research. The current and forecasted number of Pennsylvania jobs in service-producing industries that are susceptible to offshoring were tabulated by occupation. The relative susceptibility of Pennsylvania workforce investment areas to the offshoring of jobs in service-producing industries was mapped. The vast and, at times, contradictory evidence about offshoring and offshorability of jobs was summarized. At the symposium, participants discussed the implications of information about the offshorability of Pennsylvania jobs in service-producing industries for workforce investment strategies.


Research report available

Download a copy of the Penn State Institute for Research in Training & Development report, Susceptibility of Pennsylvania Service-Producing Occupations to Offshoring, from the Social Science Research Network at:


http://ssrn.com/abstract=1582545.


Video interviews posted
Opinions differ about offshoring of business activity. Offshoring of jobs remains an abstract concept until it is your own job that might be offshored. Ki Seok Jeon conducted video interviews with people visiting or living in the State College, Pennsylvania, area to collect some of these opinions about offshoring and estimate of personal employment risks resulting from offshoring. With the generous permission of these people, excerpts from these interviews are embedded in this web page from the YouTube web site of the Penn State Workforce Education & Development Initiative.

Interviews with:

  • Kevin Abbey
  • Joseph Breslin
  • Catherine Haynes
  • Chuck Herd
  • Ruth Ann Jackson
  • Laurie Linton
  • Jason Reinfried
  • Ryan Sheetz
  • Wade Shumaker
  • Jim Woodell
    • Diverse opinions about offshoring were expressed in these interviews. However, almost no one interviewed believed that their own jobs are susceptible to being offshored.

    The 2004 Gallup Index of Investor Optimism revealed that most investors not only opposed outsourcing, but also supported strong actions to limit its use by corporate America. Seventy percent of respondents to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll conducted in May 2004 indicated that outsourcing hurst the economy, but, at the same time, 80% responding did not know anyone personally who lost their job because it was outsourced to another country. Sixty percent of respondents to a 2004 Employment Law Alliance survey said that companies sending work overseas that could be done by US workers should be punished by the federal government.

    		 


    Discuss offshoring & offshorability of jobs

    Contacts for the Penn State study of offshorability
    Rose M. Baker, Director, Center for Regional Economic and Workforce Analysis, rbaker@psu.edu.
    David L. Passmore, Director, Institute for Research in Training & Development, dlp@psu.edu.
    Baker and Passmore are the leaders of Penn State's Workforce Education & Development Initiative, Penn State professors in Workforce Education and Development academic program, and columnists for Pennsylvania Business Central.
    Ki Seok Jeon, Research Assistant, Institute for Research in Training & Development and Doctoral Candidate in Workforce Education & Development, Penn State University, kxj166@psu.edu

    Penn State Institute for Research in Training & Development

    Mission
    The Institute for Research in Training & Development is a research group of the Department of Learning & Performance Systems within Penn State's College of Education. The Institute was established by a decision of the Penn State Board of Trustees in the mid-1980s. The Institute is located in J. Orvis Keller Building on the University Park Campus of Penn State (see maps, travel directions, parking, and lodging information). The main point of contact with the Institute for Research in Training & Development is through David Passmore, 305D J. Orvis Keller Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802-1303, 814.689.9337, dlp@psu.edu.

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