No. 2005-12-A

Office of Economics Working Paper

 U.S. International Trade Commission

William Greene*

U.S. International Trade Commission

January 2006

*The author is with the Office of Economics of the U.S. International Trade Commission. Office

of Economics working papers are the result of the ongoing professional research of USITC staff

and are solely meant to represent the opinions and professional research of individual authors.

These papers are not meant to represent in any way the views of the U.S. International Trade

Commission or any of its individual Commissioners. Working papers are circulated to promote

the active exchange of ideas between USITC Staff and recognized experts outside the USITC,

and to promote professional development of Office staff by encouraging outside professional

critique of staff research.

Address correspondence to:

Office of Economics

U.S. International Trade Commission

Washington, DC 20436 USA

Growth in Services Outsourcing to India: Propellant or

Drain on the U.S. Economy? 
No. 2006-01-A

OFFICE OF ECONOMICS WORKING PAPER

U.S. INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION

William Greene 

U.S. International Trade Commission 

January 2006 

The authors is with the Office of Economics of the U.S. International Trade 

Commission. Office of Economics working papers are the result of the ongoing 

professional research of USITC Staff and are solely meant to represent the 

opinions and professional research of individual authors. These papers are not 

meant to represent in any way the views of the U.S. International Trade 

Commission or any of its individual Commissioners. Working papers are 

circulated to promote the active exchange of ideas between USITC Staff and 

recognized experts outside the USITC, and to promote professional 

development of Office staff by encouraging outside professional critique of 

staff research. 

Address correspondence to: 

Office of Economics 

U.S. International Trade Commission 

Washington, DC 20436 USA 

Growth in Services Outsourcing to India: Propellant or 

Drain on the U.S. Economy?
TABLE OF CONTENTS

 Page

Introduction .................................................................. 1

Business process outsourcing .................................................... 2

Link to telephony technology development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Outsourcing models ...................................................... 6

Outsourcing development phases............................................ 9

Current world market .................................................... 11

India’s business process outsourcing sector ......................................... 11

Indian sector size and market share ......................................... 11

Employment ........................................................... 12

Locational advantage .................................................... 13

Trade liberalization ..................................................... 15

Wage rate advantage .................................................... 15

Geographic BPO concentration ............................................ 16

Services offered by Indian process outsourcing firms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

International competition ................................................. 18

Weaknesses of India’s business process outsourcing sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Wage inflation and manpower availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Attrition and absenteeism ................................................ 22

Infrastructure deficiencies ................................................ 22

Security concerns ....................................................... 22

Hidden costs ........................................................... 23

Outsourcing’s effects on the U.S. economy ......................................... 23

 Projected job losses ..................................................... 24

Actual job losses ....................................................... 26

U.S. business competitive position ......................................... 30

Knowledge base .................................................. 32

Education ....................................................... 33

Protectionism .................................................... 33

Loss of knowledge base ............................................ 34

Offshore outsourcing literature .................................................. 34

Business-industry and Consulting companies views and estimates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Academic literature ..................................................... 43

Conclusion .................................................................. 50
Appendix

Selected commentary on the United States, India, and outsourcing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-2

References ................................................................ A-8 
The outsourcing of business process services first became a hot- button issue during the 2004 U.S. 1

Presidential campaign. Throughout the campaign, newspapers and television reports continuously presented stories

tying the economic recession and the so-called U.S. “jobless recovery” to the loss of high-paying white-collar

information technology (IT) and service sector jobs to developing countries. These stories captured the attention of

many Americans who had generally believed that their white-collar middle class occupations were immune to

international competition. Many subsequently expressed the fear that the U.S. economy was being “hollowed out” by

international competition, and that their jobs were no longer safe from being sent offshore. In The New Wave of

Outsourcing, Bardhan and Kroll (2003) state that many Americans fear that “we are witnessing what maybe the

largest out-migration of non-manufacturing jobs in the history of the U.S. economy.” However, others contend that

the impact of offshoring of services on the U.S. labor market is relatively minor. Outsourcing advocates 

acknowledge that some low-skilled workers will be temporarily dislocated due to outsourcing, but maintain that the

U.S. economy will gain in the long run. U.S. consulting firm Gartner Research maintains that less than 5 percent of

all U.S. IT and service related IT positions have been sent offshore. It also estimated that U.S. jobs lost to offshore

outsourcing in 2002 represented less than 3 percent of the total U.S. labor force. 

Proponents assert that U.S. exports would be billions of dollars higher because outsourcing would enable 2

U.S. companies to lower their prices in foreign markets and take advantage of growing incomes in those nations. 

Literature related to the offshoring of business process services is growing and includes: Jensen and 3

Ketzer (2005); Bhagwati, Panagariya, and Srinivasan (2004); Bardhan and Kroll (2003); Arora, Ashish, and

Gambardella (2004); Amiti and Wei (2004); Brainard and Litan (2004); Kirkegarrd (2004); Schultze (2004);

Bronfenbrenner and Luce (2004); Dossain and Kenney (2003, 2004); Mann (2003); and Samuelson (2004).

1

Introduction

In recent years, one focus of globalization - the transfer of certain manufacturing processes

overseas - has expanded to include the offshore outsourcing of many business process services. The

offshore outsourcing of business process services to other countries has generated much debate in the

United States and presents broad implications for American consumers and equity share holders,

corporations, and the U.S. workforce. Critics of offshore outsourcing contend that it will destroy the 1

American middle class and seriously undermine America’s economic future. Opponents of business

process outsourcing (BPO) fear that millions of U.S. workers will become jobless from competition in

the services sector and accuse U.S. corporations of exporting high paying white-collar service jobs

overseas at the expense of the American worker. Others fear that outsourcing will exert downward

pressure on U.S. wages and that the income distribution gap will broaden as more middle-class jobs go

offshore. 

On the other hand, proponents of outsourcing and globalization believe that it will benefit the

U.S. economy by lowering the prices of certain services, increasing profit margins, expanding exports,

raising dividends to shareholders, providing greater job security and higher wages for remaining workers,

and generally resulting in economic efficiency. Advocates contend that the benefits to the U.S. economy

derived from offshore outsourcing will more than offset any pain and suffering caused by the dislocation

of U.S. workers. Likewise, proponents predict that the economic activity associated with offshore

outsourcing will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs in the U.S. economy and that U.S. real gross

domestic product (GDP) and U.S. exports will be billions of dollars higher than in the absence of the

offshoring.2

Outsourcing critics and proponents engaged in passionate debate throughout 2004, even though

little empirical evidence exists to support many claims made by either side. According to Dan Davison, a 3

Meta Group analyst, “the issue [was] going to be exaggerated and manipulated by both sides in the

political debate. There are distinct differences of opinion in what corporations should do to take
“Democrats hopefuls, lawmakers denounce outsourcing,” The Indian Express, Feb. 7, 2004, found at 4

http://www.indianexpress.com/print.php?content_id=40640, retrieved Feb. 15, 2005.

Despite the attention, relatively little is known about how many jobs may be at risk from relocation or how

5

much job loss is associated with these business decisions (Kletzer 2005). Nevertheless, a number of papers and

studies have emerged during the last few years related to the offshoring of business process services. The most

frequently cited projections estimate that between 300,000 and 3.3 million U.S. services jobs will go offshore by

2015. Bardhan and Kroll (2003) estimate that 14 million workers are vulnerable to job loss from services

outsourcing. Whereas, Mann (2003) stated that these predictions failed to consider that the U.S. economy will

generate stronger demand for IT proficient workers due to offshoring and the infusion of IT in new sectors of the

economy. She also contends that these predictions also fail to factor in such issues as the business cycle, the

overvaluation of the U.S. dollar, and the dot.com bust when compiling projections. Likewise, Amiti and Wei (2004)

asserted that they did not find evidence to support the prevailing level of anxiety in the United States over massive

job losses caused by offshoring.

See page 18 for a discussion of competing international business process outsourcing services (BPO)

6

destinations.

Depending on daylight savings time, India is either 9.5 or 10.5 hours ahead of the U.S. (Eastern standard 7

time) that could enable U.S. companies to operate on a 24/7 basis. For the typical Indian call center, manpower

typically accounts for 55 to 60 percent of total costs. In contrast to the United States, where many call center workers

are high school graduates, India’s call center workforce consists primarily of college graduates with excellent

linguistic skills. This provides an overall improvement in the quality of services. 

2

responsibility, and what kind of public policy should be implemented.”

4

The degree to which offshore outsourcing has either positively or negatively affects the U.S.

economy is still being debated. Some of the negative aspects of outsourcing are clearly visible with the 5

increasing transfer of U.S. information technology (IT) and services offshore, whereas the positive

benefits are more difficult to demonstrate. Today, U.S. companies account for approximately 70 percent

of the global offshoring market.

The destination for much of U.S. business service outsourcing is India. U.S. firms now account

for about 80 percent of India’s BPO market. The driving force behind much of this U.S. outsourcing 6

trend to India is the lower labor costs provided by the Indian BPO sector. India’s comparative advantage

lies in its highly developed and successful IT sector, its reputation for low-cost but high-quality work.

India can provide a large pool of low-wage English speaking IT knowledge workers who are highly

educated. Additionally, India can count on growing Internet and telecommunications capabilities and

favorable time zone differential.

7

This paper presents an overview of India’s participation in the provision of business process

outsourcing services to U.S. companies. The paper will describe the dynamism behind the Indian BPO

sector and will discuss key related issues, including the factors that influence U.S. corporate decisions to

outsource - competitiveness, job growth and productivity.

Business process outsourcing

Outsourcing is a generic term used when companies contract non-critical, but essential, business

processes and services to third-party vendors, either domestically or offshore. Over the past several

decades the world’s economies have become increasingly interdependent, and many CEOs have come

under increasing pressure to raise productivity and profitability while lowering operational costs.

Outsourcing has emerged as a popular competitive strategy for large and small companies that believe

they must perform their business processes offshore in order to survive in the domestic and international

marketplace. Criteria for successful offshoring of business process services include:
Jagdish Bhagwati, Arvind Panagariya, and T.N. Srinivasan, “The Muddles over Outsourcing,” Journal of 8

Economic Perspectives, Vol. 18, No. 4, Fall 2004, pp. 93-114.

 “Gartner Says Offshore BPO Industry to Grow 65 percent in 2004,” Gartner, Media Relations, found at 9

http://www.gartner.com/5_about/press_releases/asset_79327_11.jsp, retrieved May 5, 2005.

3

• no face-to-face customer servicing requirements;

• high information content that can be standardized and digitized and performed at a distance; 

• work processing that can be transmitted via telephone or Internet; 

• high wage differentials between countries;

• job processes that can be separated and documented step-by-step;

• low set-up costs;

• low social networking requirement and the availability of appropriate skills.

Bhagwati, Panagariya, and Srinivasan define offshore outsourcing as the arms-length or longdistance purchase of services abroad, principally, but not necessarily, via electronic mediums such as the

telephone, fax, and Internet. The management consulting firm, Gartner, defines business process 8

services as “the delegation of one or more IT intensive business processes to an external service provider

(third party), that in turn, owns, administers and manages the selected process(es), based upon defined

and measurable performance metrics to improve overall business performance.

Offshore business process services function by delegating one or more business processes such

as call centers, computer help-desks, market research services, and accounting services to an external

service provider from a country that is geographically remote from the clients’ enterprise.” For purposes 9

of this paper, the term “business process outsourcing” will be used interchangeably with offshoring,

offshore outsourcing, and information technology enabled service-business process outsourcing (ITESBPO). Benefits and potential liabilities associated with offshoring business process services offshore are

presented in Box 1.

Box 1: Benefits and potential liabilities associated with outsourcing

Benefits Potential liabilities

• Labor arbitrage (profit from labor wage differential). Offshore

 workers cost generally one-third to one-fifth that of U.S.

 workers).

• Opportunity to build a global production chain. 

• Labor productivity and economies of scale, efficiencies, flexibility,

 and streamline operations.

• Ability to focus on core-competencies to create stronger

 companies.

• Greater flexibility to respond to unexpected changes in

 the business cycle or in the market.

• Access to latest technologies, business practices, and other

 skills not available within the company.

• Lower operations costs.

• Ability to provide around the clock services to customers.

• Ability to convert fixed costs to variable costs. Overall cost savings

 can range between 20 to 60 percent. Savings from reduced costs

 can be translated into lower prices for consumers.

• Lack of intellectual property - weaker data security

 in many developing countries (no data protection

 laws to ensure data security), sharing sensitive

 data and proprietary technology.

• Loss of institutional knowledge.

• Weakness in internal controls of 3 party players. rd

• Hidden costs: staff training, redeployment costs, lost

 productivity during transition, temporary staff

 costs, cost of selecting a vendor, cost of layoffs,

 cultural costs, cost of managing an offshore

 contract. 

• Loss of management control.

• Dependency on political stability in the host

 country.

• Loss of production and customer knowledge base.

• Vendor underperformance.

• Loss of flexibility. 

• Loss of bargaining power.

• Quality-delivery issues.

Sources: Nasscom, IT PRO, C/NET News, The Times of India, Hindustan Times.
Saurabh Jawa, “Balancing cost and quality imperatives,” The Financial Times, Dec. 25, 2004, found at 10

http://www.financialtimes.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=77847, retrieved May 5, 2005.

Thomas L. Friedman, “The Great Indian Dream,” The New York Times, March 11, 2004, pg. A29. 11

Carrie Kirby, John Shinal, “Offshoring’s giant target: The Bay Area Silicon Valley could face export of 1 12

in 6 jobs - - worst in nation,” SF Gate, March 7, 2004, found at http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/03/07/MNGRT5g2c11.dtl&typ..., retrieved June 3, 2005. 

According to former Federal Reserve Bank Governor Ben Bernanke, “outsourcing has proved profitable 13

primarily for clearly defined jobs involving routine activities and most-high-value service jobs require workers to

have physical proximity to each other.” Trade and Jobs, Remarks by Governor Ben S. Bernanke, Fuqua School of

Business, Duke University, March 30, 2004. 

CSPP is an umbrella organization made up of prominent U.S. IT companies such as IBM, Hewlett- 14

Packard, Intel, Dell, EMC, Motorola, NCR, and Unisys. Ashu Kumar, “US IT Cos join fight against BPO backlash,”

ExpressIndia, May 19, 2005, found at http://expressindia.com/print.php?newsid=27731, retrieved May 18, 2005.

“The Case For, and Against, Shifting Back-office Operations Overseas,” Knowledge Wharton, found at 15

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/100902_ss1.html, retrieved Feb. 2, 2005.

4

The initial wave of IT and business process outsourcing began in the late 1990s in response to a

tight U.S. labor market caused by the “dot.com” boom and by the “year 2000 (Y2K)” crisis. This 10

created an upsurge in demand for computer coders, testers, and software programmers to analyze and

correct legacy software that was not available in the United States. India’s emergence as a technology

“powerhouse” proved to be the frontrunner for U.S. companies to meet this challenge. The Y2K crisis

also provided many Indian companies with their first outsourcing contracts as U.S. corporations began to

shift their IT enabled business services abroad.

Today, U.S. corporations are sending many of their routine labor-intensive service tasks to

developing countries that offer significant cost savings advantages with little or no apparent drop off in

quality. Labor cost differentials have allowed U.S. corporations to save between 30 and 70 percent on

labor costs. According to Carol Bartz, Chief Executive and Chairman of software firm Autodesk, “when

11

you get great talent at 20 percent of the cost, it isn’t about waving the American flag. It’s about doing

what’s right to have a good company.” These savings can be passed on in the form of lower prices to 12

consumers and higher dividends to shareholders. 

Offshoring business process services also allows American companies to focus on their core

profit making activities (competencies) while improving quality and productivity and expanding into new

lines of business or activities. By shedding non-core business process activities, U.S. companies can

focus on those parts of their production chain that are profitable and that provide a competitive

advantage. Wider benefits offered by offshoring business process services include improving

efficiencies, economies of scale, elimination of company-specific non-revenue generating activities,

provide greater business flexibility, and reduce indirect costs. In many instances, offshoring allows a

company to either eliminate certain internal fixed costs or transform them into external variable costs to

be born by the offshore vendor at a fixed price.13

Many U.S. corporations view offshoring of business process services as a business necessity.

Others have followed suit only after seeing competitors going offshore to search for inexpensive talent

and lower costs. Bruce Mehlman, executive director of the Computer Systems Policy Project (CSPP)

said that, “because U.S. companies are operating globally, they must hire qualified workers around the

world to meet customer demands and expand their capacities - a business model that makes sense, given

that increasing corporate revenues come from abroad.” Likewise, according to Vail Dutto, CEO of 14

InTelegy of San Ramon, CA, “it’s just really expensive to do business here in the U.S., particularly from

a customer support standpoint.”15
Other jobs possibly subject to offshoring include: inbound and outbound call centers, medical records 16

maintenance, computer programming, telemarketing, reservations, and data processing. As of 2004, offshoring has

grown to include database design, software programming; credit card call collections; mortgage and insurance claims

processing and services; e-commerce support; design and billing support; administering payroll, documents

management, geographical information systems services for insurance companies, computer help desks; stock market

research for financial firms; tax and compliance management, training and personnel, paralegal services; legal online

database research; and data analysis for consulting firms.

“Mr. Mankiw is right,” The Washington Post, Feb. 13, 2004, P. A26. 17

For further back ground see: William Greene, The Liberalization of India’s Telecommunications Sector:

18

Implications for Trade and Investment, USITC, Office of Economics Working Paper, No. 2004-09-B, Sept. 2004.

According to Nasscom, government liberalizations include: permission to use common infrastructure;

19

domestic call centers permitted to use integrated services digital network (ISDN) for back-up of leased lines for

better resilience in the system; stand-alone domestic tele-marketing centers; for making outgoing calls, termination of

local PSTN lines on the PABX of the domestic call centers permitted; for the foreign end connectivity in the

international call center, use of ATM/MPLS/Frame Relay based managed international networks permitted in

addition to the existing provision of connectivity through point to point IPLC format for quantity information to be

furnished by companies registered under OSP category for call center businesses. Latest in BPO Regulation,

Nasscom, found at http://www.nasscom.org/articlepring.asp?art-id=2488, retrieved Dec. 28, 2004.

5

The first wave of business process services outsourced by U.S. firms consisted principally of

entry-level, low paying jobs that included business processes that could be electronically transmitted.

Although many of these jobs lacked financial status in the United States, they were considered highpaying, high-status jobs in developing countries. These tasks included voice and e-mail processing,

customer and financial services, market research, pay roll, computer help desks, credit card collections,

account reconciliation, and transcription. Over the past few years, however, business process 16

outsourcing has grown to include a variety of higher value-added services such as financial and

accounting, engineering, and research and development services.

Link to telephony technology development: The popularity of offshoring business process

services accelerated over the last few decades by falling international telecommunications costs, new

fiberoptic links between the United States and the developing world, the computerization and digitization

of many business services, standardized interactive software packages, and reliable and affordable

international bandwidth connections. These new developments effectively leveled the playing field, 17

enabling foreign workers to compete directly and effectively with U.S. workers for a wider assortment of

occupations. The emergence of new telecommunications technologies also removed the need for physical

proximity at the point of sale, allowing U.S. corporations to send large amounts of data nearly anyplace

in the world instantaneously. Consequently, hundreds of U.S. corporations moved portions of their noncore customer services and other financial and administrative functions, to countries like India, China,

and the Philippines to take advantage of substantial labor cost differentials.

Since the mid 1990s, India has progressively liberalized its telecommunications services and

equipment manufacturing sectors and opened them to private sector participation. India’s National

Telecom Policy 1994 was the first significant government-sponsored effort to reform the Indian

telecommunications sector by reducing barriers to entry, encouraging competition, accelerating

modernization, and providing low-cost telephony to the largest number of Indians at affordable prices.

18

A second Indian National Telecom Policy in 1999 established more ambitious universal coverage targets

and presented service providers with greater choices of technologies and new tele-density goals, which

allowed telecommunication service providers to shift from a high cost fixed license fee regime to a lower

cost revenue sharing scheme. It also legalized Internet telephony, brought on an explosion in high-speed 19
“The Outsourcing History of India,” Outsource2India, found at http://www.outsource2india.com/why20

india/articles/outsouricng-history.asp, retrieved Jan. 12, 2005.

 Indian ITES-BPO Industry-Fact Sheet (Nasscom-McKinsey Report), found at 21

http://www.nasscom.org/dowloard/ites_factsheet.pdf, retrieved Dec. 28, 2004.

“Scrambling to Stem India’s Onslaught,” Business Week, Jan. 26, 2004, found at 22

http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/04_04/b3867094_mz063.htm?chan..., retrieved Apr. 15,

2005.

“Out of captivity,” The Economist, Nov. 11, 2004, found at 23

http://www.economsit.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=3389328, retrieved Apr. 15, 2005. 

 In 2004, GE’s back office arm, GE Capital International Services (GECIS), employed approximately 24

13,000 Indian workers plus 4,000 located in the United States, China, Hungary, and Mexico. Also in 2004, GE

divested 60 percent of its stake in GECIS primarily to U.S. private equity funds General Atlantic Partners and Oak

6

Internet connections and ended the state monopoly on international calling facilities that brought about a

drastic reduction in long-distance telecommunications rates and ushered in a slew of inbound/outbound

call centers and data processing centers.

Indian IT companies began entering the global market in the late 1990s. U.S. corporations looked 

to India and its abundance of well-educated English-speaking programmers and coders who were adept

with increasingly obsolete programming languages to assist in addressing the Y2K problem. Some of the

earliest U.S. services outsourced to India included medical transcription services, payroll accounting,

credit card call collections, mortgage and insurance claim processing, and data processing.20

Outsourcing models: The National Association of Software and Service Companies

(Nasscom) of India divided the nation’s BPO sector into five basic types: captive arms of global

corporations, Indian start-ups, Indian IT service companies, global BPO majors, and broad-based global

services companies.21

N Captive wholly-owned subsidiaries of multinationals: These early entrants were subsidiaries of

foreign multinationals. The pure captives were founded to perform basic financial and administrative

functions such as telephone banks, medical records keeping, computer programming, call centers,

telemarketing, reservations, and data processing for the parent company. The captive partnership model

offers companies long-term cost savings and high management control over their operations. Under this

model, the risk of disrupting business continuity appears to be low and data security appears to be high. 

On the negative side, the pay back period for the initial investment in offshore outsourcing can be as long

as 4-to-5 years. This is due to high initial set up costs and lead time needed to make the offshoring

outsourcing transition. The model typically suits large companies that need to operate on huge scales.

U.S. multinationals with captive centers in India include Dell Computers, American Express, General

Electric, Delphi Automotive, NetScape, Hewlett Packard, Standard Chartered, Convergys, Citigroup,

eServe, and Ernst & Young.

Nasscom estimates that during the 2000-2003, the number of Fortune 500 companies offshoring

work to India grew from 125 to 285. Multinationals pioneering offshoring to India via captive centers

22

include General Electric, Swissair, Lufthansa, McKinsey & Co., BechTel, Ford, Conseco, Dell

Computers, Standard Charter Bank, British Airways, and American Express. General Electric pioneered

the offshoring movement in 1997, and its GE Capital International Services (GECIS) is the largest

business process outsourcing firm in India, operating 5 centers across the country. GE’s wholly-owned

captive centers have been the model for other multinationals. GE also operates a joint venture called 23

iProcess, that offers IT enabled business process outsourcing services, and the John F. Welch

Technology Center, its first and largest research and development center outside the United States.24
Hill Capital partners for between $380 and $400 million. GE’s presence in India continues through its John F. Welch

Technology Center. “BPO Sector Symbolizes Dynamism and Change,” Nasscom NewsLine, Nov. 2004, found at

http://www.nasscom.org/bponewsline/nov04/newsanalysis.asp, retrieved Dec. 23, 2004. 

“At least eight BPO players may be $100-m cos by 2005,” The Economic Times, Feb. 17, 2004, found at 25

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-500600, retrieved Feb. 18, 2004.

7

N Indian start-ups: Within the last 4 years, Indian entrepreneurs have launched their own

business process outsourcing operations. These companies, also referred to as third-party providers, offer

BPO services to external customers, both domestic and foreign. The first participants were niche players,

like Talisman Corp, that offered CRM services. Subsequently, others such as Spectramind, Wipro, HCL

Technologies, Hero, and Daksh entered this growing segment. There are approximately 300 third-party

providers in India, and the larger startups were typically founded by former BPO workers and are not 

captive wholly-owned subsidiaries of multinationals. The vast majority of the firms participating in this

sector tend to be small with around 50 to 100 seats-workers.

Indian owned third-party firms continue to dominate the industry in terms of numbers. Wipro,

Infosys and several of others began as subcontractors to U.S. IT firms during the Y2K crisis and have

expanded beyond IT maintenance and support. Many of these firms can perform end-to-end services for

both foreign and domestic customers, including writing software applications and managing payroll.

Although the majority of these companies are small, the Indian BPO industry boasted of having eight to

10 of these large services companies in 2005 that were capable of competing with multinationals. In

25

2005, WNS became the largest third-party BPO company displacing Wirpo Spectramind, which

purchased Spectramind, India’s third largest call center in 2002 (table 1). 
8

Table 1: India’s leading third- party business process outsourcing companies, based on FY2004-05 revenues

Company Employment Services

WNS Group 3,500 Data management services, back office administrative services for airlines,

travel and transportation, insurance, financial services, and healthcare services.

Wirpo Spectramind 14,400 Call centers, accounting, CRM, transaction processing, software design.

HCL Technologies BPO Technology/IT help desk, collection services, GIS related services.

IBM-Daksh e-services 6,000 Call centers, e-mail support, outbound voice, telemarketing/telesales,

transaction processing/back office processing, outbound collections, inbound

technical support.

ICICI OneSOurce 4,000 Call centers, transaction processing for banking and insurance sector, asset

management services, contact center services (inbound, outbound, web

services).

Exl Service 4,600 Banking and financial services, insurance, IT help desk, collections, process

consulting.

Mphasis BFL NA Financial, retail, logistics, transportation, healthcare services.

Internet Global 4,500 Network technologies, internent-web.

GTL Itd 950 Technical support, IT help desk, customer management, customer acquisition.

Progeon 2,269 Financial, accounting, administration process, telecom, healthcare services.

24/7 Customer 4,000 Customer interaction services, telemarketing, e-mail management, back-office

services, customer analytics.

Datamatics Technologies 2,250 Tax processing, claims processing, asset management, check processing.

Hinduja TMT 1,600 Telecom customer service, technical support-IT helpdesk, tele-marketing,

insurance claims, health care, inbound call centers.

Transworks Information 2,000 Customer interaction, contact center services, order entry, help-desk support.

Tracmail Group 2,000 Customer service, technical support, receivables management, e-mail

campaigns, new account activations, data entry.

Source: Nasscom, BPOIndia.com.

N Indian IT service companies: To gain access to India’s booming business process outsourcing

market, Indian IT companies founded a number of companies as joint ventures, in-house divisions, or

subsidiaries. These include Infosys and its wholly owned subsidiary Progeon, the TCL and HDFC Bank

joint venture known as Intelent, Mphasis BFL’s wholly owned subsidiary Msource, and Satyam’s

subsidiary Nipuna. Rather than following this model, other Indian IT companies chose to enter the

market by purchasing existing BPOs. For example, Wipro acquired Spectramind, HCL Tech acquired the

Apollo Contact Center of British Telecom, and Polaris acquired iBackOffice. Nasscom reported that

many of these IT companies entered the Indian BPO sector because they could provide end-to-end

services.

N Global business process outsourcing majors: Nasscom described these companies as focused 

BPO providers or as spin-offs of large global corporates. Some have established joint ventures to gain
“JV best BPO model: report,” The Financial Express, found at 26

http://www.financialexpress.com/print.php?content_id=75065, retrieved March 16, 2005. 

“India can rake in $16 bn for outsourcing by ‘07,” The Economic Times, Feb. 11, 2005, found at 27

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1017548,prtpage-1.cms, retrieved March 14, 2005.

William Chadwick, Global Trends in the Information Technology Outsourcing Services Market, USITC, 28

Industry Trade and Technology Review, Nov. 2003. 

9

access to India’s BPO market. As one example, Sitel Corp set up a joint venture with the Tata Group and

Stream set up one with TracMail. Other Indian firms, however, such as Convergys and Sykes established

wholly-owned subsidiaries in India. The preferred route for global BPO majors has been to form joint

venture partnership. The business press has stated that these joint partnerships combine “the best of the

captive and the third party models and is the most appropriate for all categories of buyers except the very

large ones.”26

N Broad-based global service companies: The broad-based service providers entering the Indian

BPO sector include consulting firms such as PwC and Accenture and IT services companies such as EDS

and ACS. Many have entered the market to take advantage of existing client relationships and to take

advantage of an ability to provide bundled services as well as the high-growth potential this market

provides.

Outsourcing development phases: India’s business process outsourcing industry has

progressed through three distinct development phases.27

First stage: (1997-1999) The Y2K crisis also provided many Indian companies with their first

outsourcing contracts because U.S. corporations began to shift their IT enabled business services abroad.

General Electric Capital Services was the first multinational to pioneer business process outsourcing in

India. GE Capital Services opened its first India-based international call center in 1997 to perform tasks

such as money collections, credit-card services, and data management. Other multinationals followed,

establishing their own ‘captive’ wholly-owned offshore facilities. Most of these centers were located in

New Delhi, Mumbai or Bangalore. The absence of infrastructure, reliable power and telecommunications

services, and restrictive government regulations created significant barriers to growth. Other pioneering

multinationals included British Airways (World Network Services), HSBC, Swissair, and American

Express. 

Second phase: The second phase (1999-2000) witnessed the emergence of a number of joint

venture, third-party Indian start-ups funded by venture capitalists. Many of these operations were started

by former Indian employees of multinational business process outsourcing firms who resigned to launch

their own ventures. Mumbai, New Delhi, and Bangalore continued to be the preferred location for BPOs.

During the second phase a group of start-ups entered the Indian BPO market that were associated with

India’s large business houses such as the Hero Group, Reliance, Hiranandani, and Godrej. A significant

percentage of these third party startups were small ventures with 50 to 100 workers (seats), and they

“generally focus[ed] their outsourcing on low-skill, routine activities that compete primarily on the basis

of cost. More developed IT outsourcing firms tended to move toward higher value-added products

competing to a greater extent on specialized talent.”28

Third phase: (2001 to present) In the current phase, India’s business process outsourcing sector

continues to grow, mature, and consolidate. Nasscom stated that, “growth within the ITES-BPO segment
“The Indian ITES-BPO industry - Overview,” Nasscom, found at 29

http://www.nasscom.org/artdisplay.asp?cat_id=666, retrieved Feb. 3, 2005.

National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom). 30

Prominent acquisitions and mergers included: (1) CustomerAsset by ICICI OneSource; (2) Spectramind 31

(India’s largest third-party call center) by Wipro; (3) British Airways’ equity share in WNS (formerly Speedwing

World Network Services) by Warburg Pincus; (4) Daksh (one of India’s biggest call center firms) by IBM; (5) Eserve International by Citigroup; (7) iServe by U.S. based ECE; (8) PriceWaterhouse Coopers’ division by IBM

(2002); and (9) ProBusiness by ADP. Also, Indian companies also began to purchase U.S.-based BPO companies

such as (1) NervWire (Massachusetts-based IT consultancy) by Wipro; (2) Aegis Communications Group by Essar

Group partnered with Deutsche Bank; (3) CorPay Solutions by Datamatics Technologies; (4) and a significant share

of North American Benefits Networks by the Scandent Group. “Growing up,” The Economist, May 20, 2004.

“Indian BPO industry headed towards consolidation,” Nasscom BPO Newsline, found at

http://www.nasscom.org/bponeewsline/april04/news_analysis.asp, retrieved March 21, 2005.

 “Offshoring triggers M&A deals,” India Times, Infotech, Jan. 17, 2005, found at 32

http://infotech.indiatimes.com/articleshow/992490.cms, retrieved Jan. 18, 2005. 

“Many top Indian BPO outfits under threat: Gartner,” Hindustan Times, March 27, 2005, found at 33

http://www.hindustantimes.com/onlineCDA/PFversion.jsp?article=http://10.81.141.122/news/181_1295726.00...,

retrieved March 30, 2005.

Neeraj Saxena, “BPO consolidation = 100 M&A?,” Infotech, Oct. 5, 2005, found at 34

http://infotech.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1253485,prtpage-1.cms, retrieved Nov. 1, 2005.

10

is centered around the large players that can offer clients benefits such as scalability, delivery capability,

track record, customer referrals, etc.” The captive units of multinationals, as a percentage of all BPO 29

units, grew from 42.6 percent of the total to 57.8 percent, and the number of third-party vendors declined

from 57.4 percent of the total to 42.2 percent during FY 2001-FY2003.

30

Prominent Indian software services companies such as Infosys, Wipro, and Satyam entered the

BPO market during this current phase, which has been marked by significant numbers of acquisitions and

mergers. Industry observers reported 574 acquisitions and mergers in 2003 and 353 in 2004 valued at 31

approximately $500 million. With this market maturation process, many smaller BPOs found it difficult 32

to survive. As a result, Gartner, Inc. calculates that 70 percent of the top 15 India-owned BPO call centers

will either be purchased, merged, or marginalized by the end of 2005. Forrester Research also reported 33

that competing small and medium sized BPO suppliers with complementary skills are likely to merge

their operations in order to compete with the larger global firms. 

34

In addition to market consolidation, India’s BPO market has recently witnessed by a price war. 

Prices have dropped by 40 percent to 50 percent since 2002 as a result of excess capacity and growing

competition. To fill their order books, some Indian business process outsourcing firms have slashed their

wages to between $19 and $12 per employee, and many smaller companies are finding it difficult to

compete. Some desperate BPOs have lowered their wages even further to the $7 to $8 range, which many

consider suicidal pricing, in order to attract business. Companies that offer low-end voice and data

services have been coping with the reduced margins for the last year chiefly due to undercutting of costs

in the industry.

Gross margins have recorded a sharp fall of 60 percent to 40 percent, while billing for the

traditional voice-based services have slipped from $16 per hour per seat to $12 per hour per seat. The

second-tier players in the industry are facing some pressure on their margins. According to Eric

Selvadurai, President, Global Services for WNS Global Services, the smaller operators are vying to

increase their share of the market by offering lower prices and compromising on quality. Selvadurai

noted that “since this is the lowest skill segment (voice-based services) with very low investments in

infrastructure and human resources, it has been witnessing an overcrowding of players. Moreover, it is a
Parvathy Ullatil, “Cut-throat competition puts pressure on BPO margins,” rediff.com, May 14, 2004, 35

found at http://www.rediff.com/cms/print.jsp?docpath=/money/2004/may/14bp..., retrieved May 18, 2004.

 “BPO’s FY04 capex at $1.5 bn, may beat IT soon,” The Economic Times, Aug. 18, 2004, found at 36

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-818705.prtpage_1.cms, retrieved Aug. 18, 2004.

 “Gartner sees seller’s market for BPO,” Business Standard, April 1, 2005, found at http://www.business37

standard.com/iceworld/storypage_link.php?chklogin=n&autono..., retrieved Apr. 1, 2005. 

IT and ITES/BPO Exports of India, Embassy of India, Washington, DC, found at 38

http://www.embindia.org/articulos/IT%20and%20ITES.htm, retrieved Jan. 12, 2005.

Ibid. 39

Parija Bhatnagar, “Is India’s outsourcing honeymoon over?,” CNN Money, Aug. 24, 2005, found at 40

http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/23/news/international/india_outsourcing/index.htm, retrieved Aug. 30, 2005.

 Robert D. Atkinson, Understanding the offshoring Challenge, Progressive Policy Institute, May 2004, 41

found at http://www.ppionline.org/documents/offshoring_0504.pdf, retrieved March 17, 2005.

Nasscom.

42

11

commoditized service, so people have no qualms about switching from one BPO company to another if

the price is lower.” Many BPOs, especially call centers, also reported having worker retention and 35

absentee problems during this phase.

Nasscom estimates that the number of Indian business process outsourcing companies has grown

from 285 in FY2003-04 to approximately 425 in FY2004-05. These companies include a combination of

captive units and third party ventures. Nasscom also estimated that captive BPO firms dominate total

business process outsourcing revenues by contributing 65 percent, while third-party players account for

much of the remaining 35 percent. The top 10 captive firms are said to account for approximately 26 36

percent of the sector’s revenues and more than 30 percent of its employees in FY2004. The two largest

groups of companies include those owned wholly or in part by multinationals primarily from the United

States, the United Kingdom, and Indian-owned third-party players.

Current world market: The global market for business process services outsourcing is

projected to grow from $123.8 billion in 2004 to $133.7 billion by 2005. Estimates also predict that the 37

global call center help desk services market is expected to grow from $3.5 billion to $6.1 billion during

2003-08. The North American market is the largest outsourcer of business process services followed by 38

Japan and the EU (principally the United Kingdom). The U.S. market accounts for more than 70 percent

of the global BPO market and 80 percent of India’s business process outsourcing business.

India’s business process outsourcing

Indian sector size and market share: Although business process outsourcing only accounts

for 1 percent of India’s GDP and less than 2 percent of its annual job creation, it has evolved into the

most dynamic sector of India’s booming economy. According to Gartner, Inc., India presently accounts

39

for 85 percent of the world’s business process outsourcing market. India’s revenues from software and

40

business process outsourcing services exports to the United States were roughly $8.5 billion in 2004,

accounting for 70 percent of its total services exports. Nasscom reports that revenues of the Indian 41

business process outsourcing sector increased by 44 percent from $2.5 billion in 2002-03 to $3.6 billion

in 2003-04 (table 2). This sector is projected to reach $5.2 billion in 2004-05 and $16 billion by 2008.42

Nearly 70 percent of India’s business process outsourcing revenues come from call centers, 20

percent from other types of high-volume and low-value data work, and the remainder consisted of higher-
“The Place to be,” The Economist, Nov. 11, 2004, found at 43

http://www.economist.com/survey/printerfriendly.cfm?stroy_id=3351503, retrieved March 17, 2005. 

Industry sources project that the worldwide BPO market would reach $234 billion in 2005. 

44

IT and ITES/BPO Exports of India, Embassy of India, Washington, DC, found at 45

http://www.embindia.org/articulos/IT%20and%20ITES.htm, retrieved Jan. 12, 2005.

Indian ITES-BPO Industry: Nasscom Analysis, Nasscom Fact sheet. 46

12

value added functions. Since 1998-99, the business process outsourcing sector has grown from 6.5

43

percent of India’s software and services market to more than 29 percent in 2003-04. This growth was

driven by “falling telecommunication rates, low labor costs, new interactive-design software, project

management skills; and availability of a highly skilled, educated and English-speaking labor pool.”44

Table 2: Indian business process outsourcing ( BPO) revenues (1999-2006) 

Time period Revenues ($million) Percent Change

1999-00 

2000-01

2001-02

2002-03

2003-04

2004-05*

2005-06*

 565

 930

 1,495

 2,500

 3,600

 5,200

 7,300

65

61

67

31

44

40

(*) Estimates. Sources: Nasscom, Economic Times.

Employment: Employment in India’s business process outsourcing industry has grown from

42,000 in 1999-2000 to approximately 243,500 workers in 2003-04, to 470,000 in 2005-06, and

employment is projected to reach 1.1 million workers by 2012. During 2003-04, customer services 45

(including call centers) continued to dominate India’s BPO sector accounting for approximately 38

percent of total employment (table 3). As shown in figure 1, call centers were followed by content 46

development (21 percent), finance (17 percent), and administration services (16 percent).

Table 3: Indian business process outsourcing sector employment by service line

Service line Employment 

(2002-03) 

Revenues (2002-03)

($million)

Employment

(2003-04)

Revenues (2003-04)

($million)

Customer Services

(including call centers)

 66,400 830 96,000 1,200

Finance 25,000 540 41,000 835

HR 2,100 45 4,500 75

Payment services 12,000 230 21,000 430

Administration 26,000 325 40,000 540

Content development 48,000 510 51,000 550

Total 180,000 2,480 243,500 3,630

Source: Nasscom
Rafiq Dossani and Martin Kenney, Went for Cost, Stayed for Quality?: Moving the Back Office to India,

47

The Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford University, Nov. 2003.

“R&D in India:The Curtain Rises, The Plague Has Begun...,” Knowledge Wharton, found at 48

http://knowledge.Wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewarticles&id=1278&specialI=40, retrieved March 17, 2005.

Swaminomics/Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar, “R&D: India’s New Star Industry,” The Economic 49

Times, April 10, 2004, found at http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/misd- .prtpage_1.cms, retrieved

June 3, 2005. 

“India to see R&D outsourcing boom,” rediff.com, Apr. 26, 2004, found at 50

http://in.rediff.com/money/2004/apr/26bpo2.htm, retrieved Apr. 26, 2004.

Depending on daylight savings time, India is either 9.5 or 10.5 hours ahead of the U.S. (Eastern standard 51

time) that could enable U.S. companies to operate on a 24/7 basis. For the typical Indian call center, manpower

typically accounts for 55 to 60 percent of total costs. In contrast to the United States, where many call center workers

13

Indian companies appear to be moving up the value-added chain in the BPO market to provide

higher skilled and more sophisticated services. Indian business process outsourcing firms are now

performing tasks such as computer chip design, information technology services, architecture,

engineering and design, business consulting, pharmaceutical research, and financial analysis. The 47

expanded scope of high value-added services comes partly with investments from U.S. multinationals.

IBM, General Electric, Cisco, Intel, Motorola, Texas Instruments and other U.S. multinationals have

established research and development centers in India. For example, General Electric’s second largest 48

research center is located in Bangalore, and it was reported that the company will increase its research

and development (R&D) staff from 1,600 to 2,400 technicians. Indian scientists are also returning from

the United States to the country to work in these R&D centers, and the number of India patent

applications grew from 4,000 in 1995 to approximately 15,000 in 2003. According to Frost & Sullivan, 49

the India business process outsourcing research and development market is expected to have grown from

$1.3 billion in 2003 to $9.1 billion by 2010.50

Locational advantage: India’s comparative advantage lies in its highly developed and

successful IT sector, its reputation for low-cost high quality work. India’s BPO sector has a large pool of

low-wage English speaking IT knowledge workers, a strong educational tradition, growing Internet and

telecommunications capabilities, and a favorable time zone differential (Box 2). In 2004, the 51
are high school graduates, India’s call center workforce consists primarily of college graduates with excellent

linguistic skills. This provides an overall improvement in the quality of services. 

 International Labor Organization, World Employment Report 2004-05, found at 52

http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/strat/wer2004.htm, retrieved July 22, 2005.

14

International Labor Organization summarized these advantages by reporting that “whereas, the

outsourcing of lower-skilled, less-paid jobs is not a new phenomenon, increasing educational and skill

levels in developing countries enjoying labor cost advantages, India and China predominant among them,

may be attracting jobs once thought relatively immune to relocation.”

52

The international business process outsourcing industry can be divided into two basic categories:

English-speaking and non-English speaking. U.S. companies represent approximately 70 percent of

global offshoring, giving India an advantage because it has one of the world’s largest English-speaking

population.

Box 2: India’s comparative advantages

• Human capital advantages: Large pool of low-cost computer literate English speaking professionals (2 million

college graduates per year) with strong technical and quantitative skills. India has over 270 universities and 2,400

professional colleges graduating large numbers of science, technology, finance, business, engineering students.

India presently has approximately 200,000 to 250,000 computer literate workers. India system places great

emphasis on science and mathematical skills.

• Economic advantages: Workforce of 482.2 million (2004) and purchasing power parity of $3,100. Offer savings

in the range of 40 to 60 percent with manpower cost between one-tenth to one-fifth of wages earned by American

IT workers. Higher free cash flow due to reduced investments in physical infrastructure, telecom services and

equipment, wage arbitrage has also led to increased cost savings. Compared to countries like China, the

Philippines, and Malaysia, India has a comparative advantage in superior project management skills. Booming

BPO sector where employment has increased by 479 percent since 1999 also has access to IT software technology

parks and other central and state government incentives. 

• Telecommunications service: India has the world’s fifth largest public sector telecommunications network.

Reliable satellite and submarine communications links; significant reduction in telecommunication rates,

privatization has brought greater access to competitive cellular, basic, paging, Internet, and international gateway

services offered by the private sector vendors. Government has liberalized telecommunications sector permitting

100 percent FDI. Adequate physical infrastructure.

• Strong flow of global venture capital.

• Improved efficiencies and high service levels due to streamlined processes.

• General institutional comparability: India has a well developed banking system and capital markets.

Democratic government and relative political stability. Independent judiciary with Western legal and accounting

systems, media, and advertising. 

• Other important factors: Leveraging time zone differential (GMT + 4.5) that enables timely turn around time

and 24x7 services. Work practices largely comply with international quality assurance standards (SEI-CMM Level

5, ISO 9000, TQM, Six Sigma Quality, BS 7799, and COPC). Proliferation of software parks and Export

Enterprise Zones. Information Technology Act 2000 brought e-commerce within the purview of the law and

provides for stringent punishment of cyber crimes. Real estate and general and administrative expenses are low in

comparison with the United States, Japan, and Western Europe. 

Sources: Nasscom, Gartner, McKinsey Global, The Economist, The Financial Express, Business Week, Forrester.
 India’s value proposition, Nasscom, retrieved Dec. 28, 2004. 53

Rafiq Dossani and Martin Kenny, Went for Cost, Stayed for Quality?: Moving the Back Office to India,

54

The Asia-Pacific Research Center (APRAC), Stanford University, Nov. 2003. 

15

Trade liberalization: Since the late 1990s, the Indian central government has liberalized the

domestic and international telecommunications services, helped establish several Software Technology

Parks and Export Enterprise zones, offered tax holidays similar to those enjoyed by the software industry.

Various state governments have also provided assistance to companies in their internal recruitment,

retention, and training programs to attract business process outsourcing firms to their states. India’s 53

business process outsourcing (BPO) industry that began with data processing centers and customer call

centers has rapidly progressed up the outsourcing value-added chain. The digital revolution and the 12-

hour time differential between India and locations in the developed world opened up a range of services

(customer interaction, back office operations, accounting, data entry, human resource services, market

research and consultancy) that are provided in India. 

Wage rate advantage: The wage gap between the United States and India is significant, and

the outsourcing of business services functions has enabled U.S. corporations to achieve labor cost

savings of 40 to 50 percent of those costs in the United States. Kenny (2003) has estimated the wage

level for the typical call center worker in India is approximately $10,354 per year, as compared to

$55,598 in the United States. Likewise, annual salaries for computer programmers in the United States 54

range between $60,000 to $90,000 whereas their Indian counterparts currently earn between $6,000 to

$10,000 per year (table 4).

Table 4: Wage differentials between the United States and India (2002-2003)

Profession U.S. wage per hour Indian wage per hour Silicon Valley wage per hour

Telephone operator $12.57 Less than $1.00 $13.24

Health-records technologists,

medical transcriptionist

$13.17 $1.50 to $2.00 $14.54

Payroll clerk $15.17 $1.50 to $2.00 $19.50

Data entry clerk $20.00 $1.50 to $2.00 $24.44

Legal assistant, paralegal $17.86 $6.00 to $8.00 NA

Accountant $23.35 $6.00 to $10.00 $27.00

Computer programmer $28.90 $3.00 to $10.00 $38.85

Financial research analyst $33.00 to $35.00 $6.00 to $15.00 $34.00

Software designer $60.00 $6.00 NA

Software engineer $120.00 $18.00 NA

Entry level programmers 

(annual salary)

$50,000 to $60,000 $8,000 to $10,000 NA

Sources: Nasscom, Hindustan Times, McKinsey Global Institute, U. Cal Berkeley, Department of Labor (BLS).
It is estimated that over 110,000 Indians work as IT professionals in Bangalore primarily for

55

multinationals from the United States, Europe, Japan, and China. “Karnataka plans to promote smaller cities as IT

hubs,” found at http://www.newindpress.com, retrieved Aug. 14, 2004.

Bangalore, like other Indian cities, suffers from water shortages, erratic power supply, and inadequate 56

sewers, streets, and roads. The Outsourcing History of India, Outsource2India, found at

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Outsourcing-History-of-India&id=62970, retrieved Jan. 12, 2005.

These categories were developed by Gartner Research and the factors it surveyed included: infrastructure

57

(electrical power, water, telecom, roads, airport, real estate), skills availability (entry level, lateral recruits, global

MNC experienced, language), skills retention (tack record of retention trends, maturity and stability of work-force,

resource mix), access (international connectivity, domestic connectivity, hotel availability), cost of living, real estate

prices, political support (central, state, local, software technology parks of India), overall quality of life. Partha

Iyengar, IT outsourcing to India - Analysis of Cities, Gartner, Inc.

16

Geographic BPO concentration: Since its inception, India’s business process outsourcing

industry has been concentrated in the cities of New Delhi (including Gurgaon and Noida), Mumbai, and

Bangalore. These three locations account for approximately 62 percent of India’s total business process

outsourcing firms as of February 2003 (table 5). Bangalore, commonly referred to as India’s Silicon

Valley, accounts for more than 35 percent of India’s software exports ($4.2 billion in FY2004-05), 50

percent of total U.S. investment, and employs the largest number of software professionals in the world

except for Osaka, Japan. Bangalore is also the R&D home in India for Hewlett Packard, General 55

Electric, Google, Cisco, Intel, Sun Microsystems, Motorola, and Microsoft.

Table 5: Concentration of Indian business process outsourcing companies by city and state, 2003

City BPOs State BPOs

New Delhi (including Gurgaon, Noida) 

Bangalore

Mumbai

Others

Hyderabad

Chennai

Pune

Kolkata

Chandigarh

Ahmedabad

Total

103

 65

 59

 40

 39

 34

 9

 9

 5

 5

368

Maharashtra

Karnataka

Andhara Pradesh

Haryana

Uttar Pradesh

Tamil Nadu

Others

New Delhi

Punjab (Chandigarh UT)

West Bengal

69

67

43

43

36

34

34

29

13

 9

Source: “BPO: Spreading Out,” Voice & Data, Feb. 26, 2003. 

The Indian government is attempting to attract BPO investment into other cities. Since January

2005, Nasscom and the IT Ministry have been encouraging new entrants to consider locating in India’s

smaller cities and rural areas since Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore are plagued with high employee

attrition and absentee rates, the rising cost of labor, and taxed physical infrastructures. Nasscom expects

that over the next few years nearly 30 percent of India’s outsourcing revenues will come from smaller

cities.56

Consulting firm Gartner Research divided India’s core BPO cities into four basic tiers based on

factors like infrastructure, skills availability access, cost of living, political support, and quality of life

(table 6). Tier I cities, according to Gartner Research, are the most attractive in terms of skills 57

availability, infrastructure, access, and lifestyle-factors. These cities continue to dominate in terms of the

number of BPO units. Less congested Tier I-1 cities lag only slightly behind Tier 1 cities in what they
“B’lore will soon be dethroned as BPO destination,” Express India, Dec. 14, 2004, found at 58

http://expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=39570, retrieved March 17, 2005. 

Gartner Research. 59

 Ibid. 60

17

offer. For example, Tier 1-1 cities like Pune and Chennai rank low on infrastructure but have better labor

retention rates, quality educational institutions, good access, competitive cost of living and ample space,

and competitive quality of life compared to Tier I cities. Gartner predicted that Hyderabad and Chennai

will surpass Bangalore and Mumbai as India’s leading business process outsourcing center by 2010.

Gartner Reaserch Vice President Partha Iyengar, stated that “Bangalore and Mumbai will soon cease to

be the default centers for outsourcing.”58

Table 67: Leading locations India’s business process outsourcing firms

Tier City Tier attributes

Tier I Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi High costs, large talent pool, high attrition,

good English accent.

Tier I-1 Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Noida, Gurgaon, Navi

Mumbai (New Bombay)

Medium costs, large talent pool, attrition at

20%, needs more training in English accent

Tier II Kolkata, Mangalore, Mohali/Chandigarh and Bhopal Medium to low costs, medium talent pool,

attrition below 15%, English accent needs

training.

Tier III Coimbatore, Mysore, Nashik, Kochi (Cochin), Nagpur, Jaipur,

Indore, Shimla, Raipur, Lucknow, Kanpur, Panaji, Guwahati,

Bhubaneshwar, Patna, Srinagar, Thiruvananthapuram,

Ahmedabad

Medium to low costs, medium talent pool,

attrition less than 10 percent, English accent

needs training.

Source: Gartner, Inc.

Tier II cities could emerge as leading destinations. By some accounts, the cost of living in these

cities is lower - sometimes by as much as 30 percent compared to Tier I cities. Tier II cities already 59

account for more than 15 percent of India’s total IT and business process outsourcing exports.

Furthermore, BPO exports from these cities are likely to rise to 30 percent of India’s total IT and

business process outsourcing exports by 2007-08. The state government of Karnataka is encouraging

investment and development outside of Bangalore in Tier II, and Tier III cities such as Mangalore,

Mysore, and Hubli already have technology parks. Nonetheless, Tier II cities lag significantly behind

Tier I cities in terms of telecommunications services, electricity, air links, and adequate infrastructure.60

Services offered by Indian business process outsourcing firms

Today, Indian companies offer a wide rage of business process services, and those services are

constantly expanding and growing in complexity. In the past, India’s business process outsourcing sector

was most closely identified with relatively simple computer programming, call centers, medical records

transcription, revenue accounting, and data processing. However, over the last few years the variety of

services has grown to include higher value-added and more complex services such as financial and

accounting processes and research and development (table 7). Call centers continue to dominate India’s

business process outsourcing sector, accounting for nearly a third of its revenues. Financial services
Ibid. 

61

Estimated that tax returns of around 300,000 Americans were prepared by India-based CPAs at Msource

62

and other BOP firms in 2003. This figure was expected to double in 2004.

18

account for 23 percent of total BPO outsourcing revenues, while administration accounts for 14 percent

and content development accounts for 15 percent.

61

Table 7: India business process outsourcing by service lines

Segment Processes outsourced

Customer care Call centers (inbound and outbound), telesales and telemarketing, web sales, help desks (electronic and

voice), clerical support, data entry, word processing, mass e-mailing, contact centers, IT and technical

support help desks, e-CRM, collections, market research, customer phone support, warranty registration,

catalog sales, order fulfillment, up-selling and cross-selling, customer relationship management.

Health care Medical transcription, medical billing and coding, healthcare services, medical animation, tele-radiology,

clinical services.

Finance Accounting and accountancy services, billing and payment services, back office finance processing,

banking processing, sales ledger, general-nominal ledger accounting, financial reporting, customersupplier processing, document management, legal services, transaction processing, equity research

support, accounts receivable, accounts payable, cost accounting, payroll and commissions, stock market

research, mortgage processing, credit-charge card processing, check processing.

Human

Resources 

Personnel administration, hiring and recruiting, training, and education, records and benefits payment

administration, payroll services, health benefits administration, 401(k) administration, pension fund

administration, retention, labor relations.

Payment

services

Credit card and debit card services, check processing services, loan processing, electronic data

interchange.

Content

development

Engineering and design services, automation programming, digitization, animation, network management,

biotech research, application development and maintenance, web and multimedia content development, ecommerce.

Administration Tax processing, claims processing, asset management, document management, legal and medical 62

transcription, translation. 

Source: The Indian ITES-BPO activity by service line, Nasscom, 2002.

International competition: As shown in Table 8, the world’s outsourcing locations can be

placed into four basic categories or tiers. Table 9 presents the strengths and weaknesses of the leading

business process outsourcing nations.
Rumi Dutta, “Rising wages likely to blunt India’s BPO edge: Deloitte,” rediff, Aug. 13, 2004, found at 63

http://www.rediff.com/cms/print.jsp?docpath=/money/2004/aug/13bpo2.htm, retrieved Aug. 16, 2004. 

“Outsourcing set to continue: Nasscom Chief,” The Hindu, Feb. 29, 2004, found at 64

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=200402290401500.htm&date=..., retrieved Aug. 11, 2004.

Nasscom.

65

 Kanta Purushottam, “Competitive software and business process outsourcing- will India survive?” India 66

Daily, Sept. 22, 2004, found at http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/09-22h-04,asp, retrieved Aug. 16, 2004.

19

Table 8: The World’s leading business process outsourcing locations, by importance. 

Tier Country

Tier 1 India.

Tier 2: (Challengers) China, Canada, the Czech Republic, Hungry, Ireland, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Australia,

Chile, New Zealand, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Spain, and South Africa.

Tier 3 (Up and coming) Belarus, Brazil, the Carribean, Egypt, Latvia, Mauritius, New Zealand, Ukraine,

Venezuela.

Tier 4 (neophytes) Bangladesh, Cuba, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Korea, and Vietnam.

Source: Deloitte Research.63

For the foreseeable future India expects to be the leading destination for outsourcing of business

process services. Sujoy Chohan, vice president and research director for Gartner Research asserted that

no one country will rise to directly challenge India. Rather, India’s share of the world business process

outsourcing market will be challenged by a number of countries. Likewise, Kiran Karnik, president of

Nasscom, said that India will not be challenged in the near term, although countries like the Philippine

(call centers) will compete in certain specific niches. Over the long term, according to Karnik, China will

become India’s principal competition along with minor challenges from Russia, South Africa, and

Eastern Europe. Nonetheless, Karnik believes that “India is substantially ahead of China in terms of 64

human resources across the board in terms of project management capabilities, basic technical skills, and

fluency in language and comfort in dealing with customers in English language. However, the advantage

in human resources is very considerably offset by the fact that Chinese infrastructure (power, roads,

telecom) is far superior to us especially in those areas where IT companies go to [cities] like Beijing and

Shanghai.”65

Mahendra K. Sanghi, president, Association of Software and Services Companies, indicated that

India must diversify into other areas and improve the quality of its services if it is to meet this challenge.

Sanghi noted that China will not challenge India in voice services for at least 25 years, whereas, Englishspeaking countries such as South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland may. Sanghi asserted that

“it is important for India to provide services which are not given by others and where there will be no

significant challenge. To preserve the market share, diversification is essential. India should actively

venture into new horizons and vertical services.”66
20

Table 9: Leading business process outsourcing alternatives: strengths and weaknesses

Country Positives Negatives

South Africa Low-cost economy, similar time zone to EU, Englishspeaking workforce.More expensive than India, weaker

technology skills, lack large talent pool.

Philippines Skilled English speaking workforce; 94% literacy

rate; educated workforce, cultural similarities;

improved telecommunications infrastructure;

compatible legal and tax structure; low absentee

rates; sizable presence in call centers, medical

transcription, animation.

Political instability, smaller and more costlier

workforce than in India. Universities graduate

only 70,000 IT graduates annually, lack of

quality record in software.

Russia Low-cost economy, good technology skills, large

pool of engineers and scientists, competitive

universities.

Weak infrastructure, limited linguistic

capabilities, smaller workforce than India,

limited global integration, poor business

environment. 

Canada English-speaking workforce, cultural similarities,

good technology skills, proximity, good 

infrastructure.

High cost of labor, relatively costly location,

lack large talent pool.

China Low-cost economy, advantages in manufacturing and

IT, telecommunications, power, and road

infrastructure better than in India; growth in software

development and other areas where strong English

skills are not necessary . Position in the global

marketplace, special processing zones, political

stability.

Limited English capabilities, weaker project

management capabilities than India, lack of

good quality record in software, lags in terms

of experience with offshoring, high attrition

rates, experienced engineers can be up to 25

percent more expensive than India, tax

system, complicated legal structure, IPR

problem, lack of standards.

Mexico Low-cost economy, proximity; potential for Spanishspeaking call centers.More costly than India, good mostly for lowend jobs, lack large talent pool, limited

English capabilities.

Czech Republic Competitive cost structure, good technology skills,

stable business environment, strong education

system, proximity to EU, good telecommunications

infrastructure.

More expensive than India, lack large talent

pool.

South Korea Good technology skills, high literacy rate and well

educated workforce, stable business environment, 

good telecommunications infrastructure. 

Relatively costly location, smaller workforce

than India.

Malaysia Low costs, primarily for infrastructure; high level of

global integration.

Smaller workforce, lack large talent pool. 

Ireland English speaking workforce, cultural similarities,

stable business environment, well educated

workforce, proximity to EU, good brand quality.

Relatively high compensation costs, lack large

talent pool, has migrated to higher valueadded activities.

Sources: Nasscom, HCL Technologies, Forbes, AT Kearney. 

Gartner Research predicted that India could lose between 40 percent and 45 percent of global

offshore outsourcing, to Tier 2 countries, over the next six years if it fails to address the problem of rising
 Gartner’s estimates refer to work outsourced to 3 party providers and does not include work sent 67 rd

offshore by U.S. and European MNCs to their wholly owned business process outsourcing subsidiaries. K. Yatish

Rajawat, “Is India’s BPO sector in danger?,” The Economic Times, Aug. 17, 2004, found at

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-817526,prtpage-1.cms, retrieved Aug. 17, 2004.

Lisa DiCarlo, “Best Countries for Outsourcing,” Forbes, Aug. 27, 2003, found at 68

http://www.forbes.com/2003/08/27/cx_id_0827bestcoutries,html, retrieved March 15, 2005. 

21

wages and the looming shortage of qualified business process outsourcing (BPO) workers. Gartner also 67

anticipates that India’s global market share for call center services will decline from the current 80

percent to about 55 percent by 2007. Forrester Research’s John McCarthy indicated that elementary

routine labor intensive back office payroll and data entry tasks will eventually move from India to

countries with much lower wages such as Vietnam and Uruguay. This will occur as India moves up the

value-added chain to more complicated software and product development services.68

Weaknesses of India’s BPO sector

The explosive growth of outsourcing in India has exposed some fundamental weaknesses such as

high attrition rates, absenteeism, rising salaries, inadequate physical infrastructure, and the lack of data

privacy laws and intellectual protection (table 10). In a study conducted by Deloitte Consulting nearly 75

percent of the U.S. companies reported having problems with their outsourcing partners and nearly 25

percent reported that they had brought functions back to the United States. Instances of U.S. firms

recalling outsourcing projects from India are increasing. In 2004, companies such as Dell Computers,

Capital One, Lehman Brothers, and AXA recalled portions of their business process outsourcing (BPO)

operations from India.

 

Table 10: India’s Weaknesses 

• State owned companies continue to dominate telecommunication services market.

• Weak protection of intellectual property rights. Potential loss of sensitive corporate information.

• Regional political uncertainty (Kashmir and Pakistan).

• High illiteracy since 41 percent of Indians over the age of 15 are illiterate.

• English is spoken with a heavy accent.

• Lack of customer service culture. 

• Poor infrastructure, which increases costs. Underdeveloped and unreliable electrical infrastructure, roads, railways, power, 

 inadequate housing, inadequate and expensive telecom infrastructure, poor PC and internet access rates.

• Process implementation and marketing are generally still in their infancy.

• Rising operator attrition and rising training costs.

• Corruption.

• Low-quality middle and floor management (one prime cause of attrition). 

• Absence of legislation for intellectual property and data protection.

• Margins may come under pressures as competition increases from other countries.

• Most Indian BPO companies are small by world standards.

• Price wars. Small and desperate players drive down prices, causing irrational pricing behavior and poor service.

Sources: Nasscom, Gartner, McKinsey Global, The Economist, The Financial Express, Business Week, Forrester.

Wage inflation and manpower availability: Salaries at captive units have increased

between 9.7 percent and 14.3 percent during the July 2004-January 2005 period. The growing demand

for workers in Tier 1 cities is driving up wages and thereby driving down potential costs savings. Deloitte

reported that the majority of India’s IT workers received a wage hike of at least 10 percent during the

2004-05 time period, with the top 10 percent of wage earners receiving an average 40 percent increase,
Rumi Dutta, “Rising wages likely to blunt India’s BPO edge: Deloitte,” rediff, Aug. 13, 2004, found at 69

http://www.rediff.com/cms/rping.jsp?docpath=/money/2004/aug/13bpo2.htm, retrieved Aug. 16, 2004.

Parija Bhatnagar, “Is India’s outsourcing honeymoon over?” CNN Money, Aug. 24, 2005, found at 70

http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/23/news/international/india_outsourcing/index.htm, retrieved Aug. 30, 2005.

Gaurav Bhagowati, “India 2005: Facing the Challenges of Labor Shortage and Rising Wages,” 71

Outsourcing Journal, Jan. 2005, found at http://www.outsourcing-journal.com/jan2005b-india.html, retrieved Feb. 2,

2005.

“Quitters plague BPO units,” Business Standard, March 15, 2005, found at http://www.business72

standard.com/iceworld/storypage_link.php?chklogin=183..., retrieved March 15, 2005.

Mike Ricciuti and Mike Yamamoto, “Outsourcing: Where to draw the line,” CNET News.com, May 5, 73

2004.

22

whereas in the United States most IT workers received a salary increase of 5 percent or less per year.69

Many business process outsourcing firms fear that wage inflation will eventually erode the

competitiveness of India’s industry, as compared to China, the Philippines, and Malaysia. Between 2001-

2004, the average monthly salary for a typical call center employee increased from between $114 to $136

per month to $159 to $204 per month.70

Attrition and absenteeism: According to a survey conducted by Hewitt Associates, wages in

India’s business process outsourcing sector have been growing by nearly 15 percent per year as

companies have increased wages to mitigate problems associated with attrition and absenteeism. Because

of the tedious nature of the work in voice-based business process outsourcing, the annual attrition rate

can run as high as 35 percent to 40 percent. The average tenure at an voice-based India BPO is

approximately 18 months, compared to 3- to-4 years for other types of business process outsourcing

firms. Debashish Das of Keane Worldzen reported that India’s business process outsourcing industry is

concentrated in a few ‘hot spots’ like Gurgaon, Bangalore, and Mumbai. Thus, companies in these areas

are forced to compete for the same workers, which leads to wage inflation and high employee attrition

rates. Consequently, many companies considered smaller cities in 2005 for establishing BPOs. A recent

71

survey conducted by Hill & Associates, showed that the leading causes of attrition were “expectation

mismatches, job stagnation, and lack of growth, quest for a better job, content and dissatisfaction with

company policies.”72

Infrastructure deficiencies: India lacks an adequate network of modern roads and highways,

bridges, railway, regular nonstop international air flights from a variety of different Indian cities,

efficient postal service, and reliable supplies of electricity and water. To compensate for these

deficiencies, many IT and business process outsourcing firms have been forced to develop and supply

their own power and other utilities. BPOs relocating to Tier-II and Tier II cities encounter these and other

obstacles that generate higher logistical costs.

Security concerns (piracy and the loss of proprietary data): Outsourcing critics point to 

national security issues and privacy concerns, particularly in the foreign handling of sensitive financial

and medical data. These fears make some U.S. firms hesitant to outsource to other countries. “India has

intellectual property and other security laws, but policing is not very effective,” said Vamsee Tirukkala,

the cofounder and executive vice president of Zinnon, an offshore consulting company. “Every company

says they’re secure – we have BS77099 certification, which basically means you can’t get a fly through

your door, unless it’s been cleared – but theft still occurs.”73
David Wighton, “Companies question outsource benefits,” Financial Times, Apr. 19, 2005, p. 6. 74

Daniel Griswold, “Foreign Outsourcing Invigorates US Economy,” Outsourcingcenter, found at 75

http://outsourcing-offshore.com/foreign.html, retrieved Sept. 2004.

The Comprehensive Impact of Offshore IT Software and Services Outsourcing on the U.S. Economy and 76

the IT Industry, Global Insight (USA), Inc, March 2004.

Catherine L. Mann, “Globalization of IT Services and White Collar Jobs: The Next Wave of Productivity 77

Growth,” International Economic Policy Briefs, No. PB03-11, Dec. 2003.

 Remarks by Governor Ben S. Bernanke, Trade in Goods, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, 78

March 30, 2004, found at http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2004/20040330/default.htm, retrieved

May 23, 2005. 

Lori G. Kletzer, “Globalization and job loss, from manufacturing to services,” Economic Perspectives,

79

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, 2Q/2005.

Jagdish Bhagwati, Arvind Panagariya, and T.N. Srinivasan, “The Muddle Over Outsourcing,” Journal of 80

Economic Perspectives, Vol. 18, No. 4, Fall 2004, pp. 93-114.

23

Hidden costs: The outsourcing of BPO functions requires additional time to administer. Costs

for invoicing, auditing, travel and to establish communications my rise. Likewise, it may take longer to

start up operations, chose business process outsourcing vendors, provide for security, or to bring Indian

workers to the United States for training. The possibility of U.S. workforce layoffs may also lower

morale and productivity of remaining U.S. workers. Because of these hidden costs, “large companies are

scrutinizing new outsourcing deals more closely, renegotiating existing agreements, and bringing

functions back in-house.”74

Outsourcing’s effects on the U.S. economy

Economists like Bhagwati et al agree that trade in services, like all international trade, will

generate large net benefits for the U.S. economy. Global Insight estimated that outsourcing added $33.6

75

billion to U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) by 2003 and forecast that U.S. real GDP would be

$124.2 billion higher by 2008 than it would have in the absence of the offshoring of IT software and

services. Global Insight also estimated that U.S. exports were $2.3 billion higher because of outsourcing 76

in 2003 and projected that U.S. exports would be $9 billion higher in 2008 because outsourcing would

enable U.S. companies to lower their prices in foreign markets and take advantage of growing incomes in

those nations. McKinsey Research estimated that the U.S. IT industry will save nearly $390 billion by

offshoring services and software development. Mann (2003) calculated that because of offshore

outsourcing U.S. GDP experienced an additional growth of $230 billion between 1999 and 2002. Using 77

the IT hardware industry as an example, Mann expects the offshoring of business process services to also

lower prices to the consumer, make business-specific packages more affordable, and lead to higher

productivity among U.S. workers. 

Jensen and Kletzer and other economists also acknowledge that not all Americans will benefit

from free trade and offshoring. Former Federal Reserve Governor Ben Bernanke noted that “to say that

the U.S. economy benefits from trade is not to say that every individual American worker or family

benefits, or that the structural changes induced by trade are not disruptive.” Economic theory, according

78

to Kletzer (2005), acknowledges “that not everyone benefits from free trade: positive economy-wide

benefits result from the gains of the “winners” exceeding the losses of the “losers.” Bhagwait, 79

Panagariya, and Srinivasan (2004) wrote that the “U.S. economy loses low-wage call centers, but gains

high-wage jobs in medical, legal and other services. On balance, therefore, the outsourcing phenomenon,

seems likely to offer a transition to higher-value jobs.”80
The Bureau of Economic Analysis does not provide breakouts in its data that would reveal the nature of 81

the services that are traded.

 According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), there are significant differences in U.S. 82

and Indian offshore outsourcing data. These variations can be explained by: (1) the two countries follow different

practices in accounting for the earnings of temporary Indian workers residing the United States. (2) India defines

certain services, such as software embedded on computer hardware, differently than the United States. (3) Both

countries follow different practices for counting sales by India to U.S.-owned firms located outside the United States.

The United States follows International Monetary Fund. (4) The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis does not report

country-specific data for particular types of services. U.S. and India Data on Offshoring Show Significant

Differences, U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-06-116, Oct. 2005.

Former Federal Reserve Governor Ben Bernanke stated that “most economists believe that such job 83

flows are a normal and healthy phenomenon since trade increases economic welfare. Trade promotes structural

change that displaces some jobs, but trade creates many opportunities for increased employment as well, including

high-wage employment, while recently many people have been concerned specifically about the outsourcing of

business services, few are aware that the U.S. runs a healthy trade surplus in services. Quantitatively, outsourcing

abroad simply cannot account for much of the recent weakness in the U.S. labor market and does not appear likely to

be an important restraint to further recovery in employment. [That] empirical studies show that foreign trade is

responsible for perhaps 2 percent of the 15 million gross jobs lost each year. Outsourcing might be responsible for a

bit more than 1 percent of gross job loss.” “Interview with Ben S. Bernanke,” Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis,

June 2004, found at http://minneapolisfed.org/pubs/region/04-06/bernanke.ctm, retrieved May 23, 2005. 

“Outsourcing not the problem, Bernanke says,” CBS Market Watch, March 30, 2004, found at http://wwwalwaysonnetwork.com/comments.php?id=P3509_0_6_0_c, retrieved May 23, 2005. Remarks by Governor Ben S. Bernanke,

Trade in Goods, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, March 30, 2004, found at

http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2004/20040330/default.htm, retrieved May 23, 2005. 

24

In the last several decades, U.S. trade in services has grown into a significant percentage of

overall U.S. trade in goods and services. During the 1999-2004 period, trade in services accounted for

81

approximately 22 percent of total U.S. trade in goods and services. In 2004, the United States exported

$343.9 billion in services to the rest of the world, while importing $296.1 billion (table 16). Total U.S. 82

trade in services increased by 33 percent from $482.3 billion in 1999 to $640 billion in 2004, with

exports growing by 22 percent and imports growing by 48 percent. Although the United States has

historically enjoyed a surplus in services trade, that surplus declined from $82.6 billion in 1999 to $47.8

billion in 2004, representing a decline of 42 percent.

Table 16: U.S. international trade in goods and services, 1999-2004

 Exports Imports

Goods Services Total Goods Services Total

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

683,965

771,994

718,712

977,276

713,421

807,536

282,476

299,490

288,426

294,854

309,146

343,921

996,443

1,071,484

1,007,138

977,276

1,022,567

1,151,448

1,029,980

1,224,408

1,145,900

1,164,720

1,260,717

1,472,926

199,857

225,348

223,967

233,737

256,664

296,105

1,229,837

1,449,756

1,369,867

1,398,457

1,517,381

1,769,031

Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Projected job losses: Bardhan and Kroll and other economists believe that the slow rate of

U.S. job growth should not be linked to foreign trade or outsourcing because neither has a dramatic

impact on either economic growth or job creation. But other economists view outsourcing as the most 83
Peter Parry, former President of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, believes that “increased 84

productivity explains 98 to 99 percent of job loss over the last few years. A key driver of that normal churn is worker

productivity. As the economy emerges from a recession, companies push employees harder - leaning on them to

work more efficiently and longer - and that manifests itself as more output per worker. Greater productivity lets

employers postpone hiring until they are confident that consumers will buy what the additional workers produce.” 

“Puzzling through the Jobless Recovery - - OR Is It a Fundamental Shift?” Knowledge Wharton, March 5, 2003,

found at http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=printArticle&ID=955, retrieved May 23, 2005. “US: Job

cuts mount amid signs of upturn,” WSWS, Nov. 8, 2003, found at http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/nov2003/jobsn.shtml, retrieved May 23, 2005. 

Jagdish Bhagwati, Arvind Panagariya, and T.N. Srinivasan, “The Muddle Over Outsourcing,” Journal of 85

Economic Perspectives, Vol. 18, No. 4, Fall 2004, pp. 93-114.

Ashok Deo Bardhan and Cynthia A. Kroll, The New Wave of Outsourcing, Fisher Center for Real Estate 86

and Urban Economics, University of California, Berkeley, Research Report, Fall 2003. 

Forrester based its findings on employment changes in nine Standard Occupation Classification

87

occupation categories used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that are commonly associated with outsourcing.

Forrester’s findings claim that only 0.53 percent of the 56.7 million jobs lost for all reasons during 2002 came from

the 9 categories. Kirkegarrd (2003) stated in that Forrester’s estimates were potentially flawed because they do not

factor in such influences as the business cycle and technological changes on the economy at large. Jacob F.

Kirkegarrd, Outsourcing-Stains on the White Collars, Institute for International Economics, 2003. 

Critics of the projected job losses warn that “it is worth remembering that many predictions come from

88

management consultants who are eager to push the latest business fad. Many of there consulting firms are themselves

reaping commissions from outsourcing contracts. Much of the perceived boom in outsourcing stems from

companies’ eagerness to latch onto the latest management trend.” Daniel W. Drezner, “The Outsourcing Bogeyman,”

Foreign Affairs, May/June 2004, found at http://www.danieldrezner.com/policy/outsourcing.htm, retrieved June 22,

2005.

25

likely culprit for slow job creation. Others insist that factors like the collapse of the dot-com bubble,

economic recession and the war in Iraq, increased worker productivity, jobs lost to automation and

technology improvements (such as voice recognition software, the decline in U.S. competitiveness in the

scientific and technical fields, and a downturn in the business cycle) are the main factors behind lagging

employment. Deloitte Research asserted that the 100 largest U.S. financial services firms will move 84

approximately 2 million jobs to low-wage countries over the next 5 years, and 42 global

telecommunications firms will offshore an additional 275,000 jobs.

Bhagwati, Panagariya and Srinivasan (2004) concluded that factors other than offshoring and

international trade caused the slow U.S. job growth since the 2001 recession. But in The New Wave of 85

Outsourcing Ashok D. Bardhan and Cynthia Kroll (2003) identified a number of occupational

categories, representing 14 million nonmanufacturing and manufacturing position, that are at risk of

being outsourced. The majority of these at risk occupations are back office jobs that represented 86

approximately 11 percent of the total U.S. non-farm workforce in 2001.

Estimates of the employment impacts from outsourcing vary widely because the actual number of

lost jobs is difficult to quantify. Those losses can range from only a few jobs to hundreds of thousands

per year. Forrester Research estimated that 3.3 million U.S. jobs will be lost to outsourcing by 2015,

representing approximately $136 billion in wages. Forrester’s estimate translated into nearly 12,000 to 87

15,000 per month. Forrester later revised that prediction, estimating that 3.4 million jobs would be lost 88

by 2015. The firm also predicted that the number of jobs going offshore would accelerate dramatically

during 2005-06 resulting in 830,000 job losses by the end of 2005.

Another frequently cited estimate comes from Global Insight, which predicted that 372,000

software and services jobs have been lost since the dot.com bust. The Institute of Electrical and

Electronics Engineers stated that “American high-tech firms shed 560,000 jobs between 2001 and 2003,
“Outsourcing your job to earn more,” The Economic Times, July 7, 2004, found at 89

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-757679,prtpage-1.cms, retrieved July 7, 2005.

Mark Zandi, “The Off-shoring Threat,” Economy.com, retrieved Oct. 24, 2003. 90

“Not many US jobs will be lost: ITAA,” Sify, Nov. 19, 2003, found at 91

http://sify.com/printer_friendly.php?id=1311958&ctid=2&lid=1, retrieved Jan. 13, 2005.

 Ravi Aron, “Puzzling through the Jobless Recovery - - Or Is It a Fundamental Shift?” Knowledge

92

Wharton, Sept. 26, 2004, found at http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=printArticle&ID=955,

retrieved May 23, 2005.

 “Export of U.S. Jobs Seen Up-Report,” Reuters, May 17, 2004, found at 93

http://itpaa.org/modules.php?name=news&file=article&sid=703, retrieved Apr. 12, 2005.

J. Bradford Jensen and Lori G. Kletzer, Tradable Services: Understanding the Scope and Impact of 94

Services Offshoring, prepared for the Brookings Trade Forum 2005, “Offshoring White-Collar Work - the Issues and

the Implications,” May 12-13, 2005.

According to the American Electronics Association, as of June 2002 there were approximately 5.3 95

million tech jobs in the United States. Victor Godinez, “More IT jobs will go offshore, study shows,” The Dallas

Morning News, Jan. 14, 2003, found at http://www.s-t.com/daily/01-03/01-14-03/102ho122.htm, retrieved Sept. 13,

2005. 

 International Trade: Current Government Data Provide Limited Insight into Offshoring of Services, U.S. 96

General Accounting Office, Sep. 2004, GAO-04-932. 

26

and expect to lose another 234,000 in 2004.” Another estimate comes from Mark Zandi of 89

Economy.com, who calculated that offshoring was responsible for 700,000 to one million lobs lost since

2000. Zandi declared that “there is little reason to believe that the magnitude of jobs losses due to

offshoring will abate anytime soon.”

90

The Information Technology Association of America contended that the Forrester’s predictions

were exaggerated. The trade association insisted that no large scale job losses have resulted from BPO

offshoring, because only 104,000 technology jobs have been lost to offshoring since 2000. The

Association predicted that less than 10 percent of all technology jobs will be sent offshore over the next

10 to 15 years. Similarly, other critics insist that Forrester’s figures are overstated. Aron (2004) stated 91

that “you hear [of] all these fantastic projections, but the real numbers are puny compared with the

normal churn in the economy.” Likewise, Cathy Minehan, President of the Boston Federal Reserve 92

Bank, said, “clearly, this is material, but it simply isn’t large enough to have had a major impact on U.S.

employment levels in the aggregate, despite the rhetoric that suggests otherwise.” Also, Bradford and 93

Keltzer (2005) declared that there is no clear understanding of the relationship between job generation

and the globalization of business process services.94

Actual U.S. job loss: No one knows the exact number of U.S. white-collar business service

jobs that have moved offshore. Official U.S. government data on jobs lost to outsourcing is limited, and 95

U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO), statistics provide only minimal insights on job losses. The 96

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the U.S. Department of Labor began tracking outsourcing job losses

only in January 2004. By most accounts, the number of layoffs caused by offshoring constitutes only a

small fraction of the millions of jobs destroyed and created each year. The availability of accurate job

loss statistics is also hampered by the reluctance of U.S. companies to share this information.

Mann (2003) and Daniel Drezner both point out that many estimates of jobs loss use 2000 as the

base year - a time the economy was at its peak during the dot.com boom. Mann believes that changes in

the business cycle, declines in manufacturing employment, the dollar overvaluation, and the technology

bust were overlooked when the job loss projections were made. Drenzer stated that the “technology

sector because of Y2K fears and the height of the dot-com bubble had pushed employment figures to an
Daniel W. Drezner, “The Outsourcing Bogeyman,” Foreign Affairs, May/June 2004, found at 97

http://www.danieldrezner.com/policy/outsourcing.htm, retrieved June 22, 2005.

 “BLS Employment Figures Show Impact of Outsourcing,” USWA, found at 98

http://www.uswa.org/uswa/program/content/1270.php, retrieved June 17, 2005.

Chris Isidore, “What outsourcing?” CNN Money, June 10, 2004, found at 99

http://money.cnn.com/2004/06/10/news/economy/jobless_outsourcing/, retrieved June 17, 2005.

Meenakshi Rishi and Sweta C. Saxena, Is Outsourcing Really As Bad As It Is Made To Sound?, Seattle

100

University and University of Pittsburgh.

These SOC were as follows: 11-000: Management occupations; 13-000: Business and financial 101

operations; 15-000: Computer and mathematical; 17-000: Architecture and Engineering; 19-000: Life, physical and

social science; 23-000: legal; 27-000: Arts, design, entertainment, sports and media; 41-000: sales and related

occupations; 43-000: office and administrative support occupations. 

27

artificially high level. When 1999 is used as the starting point, it becomes clear that offshore outsourcing

has not caused a collapse in IT hiring.”97

In 2000, BLS projected in its Occupation Outlook Handbook that the number of computer and

mathematical occupations would grow from 3.02 million to 4.07 million between 2000 and 2010.

Subsequently, BLS modified those projections and lowered its estimate of job creation for computer and

mathematical professions from 152,800 to only 10,600 for the 2002-2012 period. Mann (2003) found 98

that during the 1999-2003 period, employment in computer and related mathematical occupations rose by

6 percent, and financial and business-employment rose by 9 percent, whereas employment among

architects and engineers was “stable” during the period.

A decline in U.S. employment clearly occurred between 2000 to 2002 when total non-farm

employment declined by 2 percent (table 17). Even if McKinsey’s and Forrester’s projections were

correct, they represented less than 2 percent of total U.S. non-farm employment in an $11 trillion

economy. In its first attempt to track offshoring related layoffs, BLS identified 4,633 jobs lost to

offshoring during the first quarter of 2004, representing only 2.5 percent of total mass layoffs during the

quarter. BLS data also shows that 69 percent of U.S. non-manufacturing workers who lost their jobs 99

during the last 20 years found new jobs within 6 months and on average earned nearly equivalent

wages.100

Forrester based its calculation on projected job losses in nine major occupational categories

included in BLS’s Standard Occupational Classifications. Table 17 summarizes employment trends in 101

those categories and it shows a decline of approximately 2.3 million, or 4 percent, in total non-farm

employment between 2000 and 2003. However, when using 1999 as the base year, employment in

Forrester’s categories increased by less than one percent. In those job categories identified by Forrester,

employment decreased when comparing 1999 and 2003 include management and architectureengineering. 
Annual employment in the “low-wage” IT enabled job classifications - 1999: 4,827,630; 2000: 102

4,633,710; 2001: 4,700,420; 2002: 4,738,720; 2003: 4,779,560.

28

Table 17: Job categories identified by Forrester Research

Occupational group 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

Management 8,063,410 7,782,680 7,212,360 7,092,460 6,439,530

Business-financial 4,361,980 4,619,270 4,676,680 4,772,120 5,045,860

Computer & mathematical 2,260,080 2,932,810 2,825,870 2,772,620 2,830,550

Architecture-engineering 2,506,380 2,575,620 2,489,070 2,411,260 2,354,580

Life- physical- social science 909,530 1,038,670 1,067,730 1,078,630 1,102,070

Legal 858,320 890,910 909,370 934,850 945,440

Arts, design, ect. 1,551,600 1,513,420 1,508,790 1,503,680 1,583,250

Sales and related 12,938,130 13,506,880 13,418,240 13,339,570 13,522,460

Office and admin support 22,562,480 22,936,140 22,798,590 22,754,570 22,607,360

Total 56,013,909 57,798,400 56,908,701 56,661,762 56,433,103

Total non-farm employment 127,274,400 129,740,981 127,980,410 127,523,760 127,420,170

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Table 18 presents data for those occupational categories most frequently tied to outsourcing. As

expected, the data follow the same trend as the occupational categories cited by Forrester. As with

Forrester, the number of jobs peaked with the dot.com boom in 2000 before declining to the 1999 level

after the bust. The data show that the number of jobs for all occupational categories increased from

7,174,660 in 1999 to 7,374,310 in 2003, or approximately 3 percent. The number of jobs in computer

related occupational categories increased from 2,347,030 in 1999 to 2,594,750 in 2003, or by

approximately 11 percent. Those computer related occupations experiencing declines between 1999 and

2003 included computer programmers and database administrators. 

The number of positions in the low-wage IT enabled occupations decreased from 4,827,630 in

1999 to 4,779,560 in 2003, or by less than 1 percent, due to a sharp drop in the number of

telemarketers. Other low-wage IT enabled positions that experienced jobs losses included switchboard

102

operators (including answering services), payroll and timekeeping clerks, credit authorizers, checkers,

clerks, human resources assistants (except payroll and timekeeping), human resources assistants (except

payroll and timekeeping), reservation and transportation ticket agents and travel clerks, medical

transcriptionists, and medical records and health information technicians.
29

Table 18: Occupations linked to outsourcing, 1999-2003

Occupation 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

Computer and mathematical 26,280 25,800 25,620 24,410 23,770

Computer programmers 528,600 530,730 501,550 457,320 403,220

Computer software engineers 496,630 639,250 623,210 611,800 703,100

Computer support specialist 462,840 264,610 493,240 478,560 480,520

Computer systems analysts 428,210 522,570 448,270 467,750 485,720

Database administrators 101,460 463,300 104,250 102,090 97,540

Network and computer systems administrators 204,680 108,000 227,840 232,560 244,610

Network systems and data communications

analysts

98,330 234,040 126,060 133,460 156,270

 Total 2,347,030 2,788,300 2,550,040 2,507,950 2,594,750

Telemarketers 485,650 119,220 437,510 419,740 405,060

Switchboard operators, including answering

services

248,570 461,890 227,660 226,890 210,190

Bill and accounts collectors 383,090 387,870 385,800 407,280 417,430

Billing and posting clerks and machine operators 551,410 492,040 480,610 491,000 490,960

Book keeping, accounting, and auditing clerks 1,619,870 1,663,530 1,697,890 1,728,730 1,762,390

Payroll and timekeeping clerks 196,660 191,310 188,570 191,500 198,800

Credit authorizers, checkers, and clerks 82,900 82,980 78,450 79,400 72,930

Human resources assistants, except payroll and

timekeeping

174,110 172,070 164,680 167,480 161,890

Reservation and transportation ticket agents and

travel clerks

222,340 199,700 183,280 174,170 156,140

Medical transcriptionists 97,260 97,330 94,090 99,160 96,340

Credit analyst 61,580 63,420 66,710 657,000 68,420

Market research analyst 67,670 99,030 108,940 122,000 153,130

Radiologic technologist and technicians 177,850 172,080 168,240 173,540 175,800

Computer information systems manager 280,820 283,480 267,310 264,790 257,860

Medical records and health information

technicians

177,850 143,870 142,170 145,270 Occupation

 Total 7,174,660 7,422,010 7,250,460 7,246,670 7,374,310

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Douglas A. Irwin, “Outsourcing’ is good for America,” The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 28, 2004, p. A16. 103

Paul Craig Roberts, “Notes for free traders,” townhall.com, March 5, 2003, found at 104

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/paulcraigroberts/pcr20030305.shtml, retrieved Apr. 20, 2005.

 They believe that there has been a “seismic” shift in the world economy was cause by three major

105

developments: (1) “new political stability is allowing capital and technology to flow far more freely around the

world.” (2) “strong educational systems are producing tens of millions of intelligent, motivated workers in the

developing world, particularly in India and China, who are capable as most highly educated workers in the

developed world but available to work at a tiny fraction of the cost.” (3) “inexpensive, high-bandwidth

communications make it feasible for large work forces to be located and effectively managed anywhere.” Charles

Schumer and Paul Craig Roberts, “Second Thoughts on Free Trade,” New York Times, Jan. 1, 2004.

30

U.S. business competitive position: Adam Smith wrote in The Wealth of Nations “If a

foreign country can supply us with a commodity cheaper than we ourselves can make it, better buy it of

them with some part of the produce of our own industry, employed in a way in which we have some

advantage. The general industry of the country, being always in proportion to the capital which employs

it, will not thereby be diminished... but only left to find out the way in which it can be employed with the

greatest advantage." The specialization it engenders leads to the availability of cheaper goods and a

greater variety of goods available to consumers. Gregory Mankiw, Chairman of President Bush’s Council

of Economic Advisors, said that “when a good or service is produced more cheaply aborad, it makes

more sense to import than to make or provide it domestically.” 

Specialization leads to the availability of less expensive goods that are more readily available to

consumers. Gregory Mankiw, Chairman of President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisors, said that

“when a good or service is produced more cheaply abroad, it makes sense to import than to make or

provide it domestically.” 

In recent years, several prominent economists have come forward to challenge the long held view

that international trade is good for advanced developed economies like the United States. These

economists also believe that outsourcing invalidates the principle of comparative advantage. Economist

Paul Craig Roberts is the most prominent advocate of this position and argues that free trade is no longer

a win-win proposition and that if outsourcing is continued “the United States will be a third world

country in 20 years.” This group of economist believes that comparative advantage is legitimate only 103

when the factors of production (land, labor, and capital) are fixed and immobile. According to Roberts, 104

“trade implies reciprocity. It is a two-way street. There is no reciprocity in outsourcing, only export of

domestic jobs.... If there are no given endowments because business know-how, capital and technology

are globally mobile, the advantage lies with countries with untapped pools of educated and skilled lowwage labor.” 

Critics of outsourcing also complain that trade economists continually ignored the downfall of

the Soviet Union and its satellites that flooded the worlds’ labor market with millions of unemployed or

low-cost underemployed workers ready to be exploited by multinationals, who are constantly on the

lookout for cheaper labor. Likewise, critics hold that exploitation of this cheap offshore labor combined

with the introduction of the Internet, low-cost telecommunications, and outsourcing threaten to upset the

balance in the demand and supply of labor and will eventually result in prolonged periods of job

disruption and wage stagnation in the developed economies. Roberts and Senator Charles Schumer (DNY) wrote a New York Times op-ed piece stating, “the case of free trade is undermined by changes in

the global economy. Comparative advantage is undermined if the factors of production can relocate to

wherever they are most productive: in today’s case, to a relatively few countries with abundant cheap

labor. In this situation, there are no longer shared gains - some countries win and others lose.”105

Roberts concluded that “today’s economists can’t identify what the new industries and

occupations might be that will replace those that are lost, but they’re certain that those jobs and sectors
Paul Craig Roberts, “The Future of Work,” Business Week Guest Commentary - The Harsh Truth About 106

Outsourcing, Business Week, March 22, 2004.

Paul A. Samuelson, “Where Ricardo and Mill Rebut and Confirm Arguments of Mainstream Economists 107

Supporting Globalization”, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 18, No. 3, Summer 2004, pp. 135-146.

William Greider, “Defunct Economists,” The Nation, Dec. 20, 2004, p. 8. 108

Ibid. 109

Charles Schumer and Paul Craig Roberts, “Second Thoughts on Free Trade,” New York Times, Jan. 1, 110

2004.

Event Summary: Free Trade in the New Global Economy, Brookings Institution, Jan. 7, 2004. 

111

 Steve Lohr, “Economist Samuelson wants to ‘set the record straight’ on globalization,” Indian American

112

Center for Political Awareness, News India Times, Jan. 24, 2005. 

31

are out there somewhere. What does not occur to them is that the same incentive that causes the loss of

one tradable good or service - cheap, skilled foreign labor - applies to all tradable goods and services.

There is no reason that the replacement industry or job, if it exists, won’t follow its predecessor

offshore.... This is what is wrong with today’s debate about outsourcing and offshore production. It’s not

really about trade but about labor arbitrage.... The U.S. loses jobs and also capital and technology that

move offshore to employ cheap foreign labor.”106

Paul Samuelson, Nobel Prize winner and professor emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of

Technology, contends that the prevailing defenses for free trade are too simplistic. He believes that the

laws of economics do not guarantee that the United States will be a winner in the long term because of

outsourcing and all other forms of international trade. The assumption held by some economists that 107

the United States will always be a winner, according to Samuelson, is "only an innuendo." William

Greider, of The Nation, interprets Samuelson’s argument: “in certain circumstances, when a very poor

but ambitious nation is trading with a wealthy advanced economy, free trade can turn into a very ugly

loser for the wealthy country--inflicting permanent economic loss, stagnant wages, greater inequality and

other hurtful consequences.” Likewise, “a low-wage nation that is rapidly improving its technology, 108

like India or China, has the potential to change the terms of trade with America in fields like call-center

services or computer programming in ways that reduce per-capita income in the United States. The new

labor-market-clearing real wage has been lowered by this version of dynamic fair free trade." Schumer 109

and Roberts stated that “when American companies replace domestic employees with lower-cost foreign

workers in order to sell more cheaply in home markets, it seems hard to argue that this is the way free

trade is supposed to work. To call this a “jobless recovery” is inaccurate; lots of new jobs are being

created, just not here in the United States.” Schumer continued, “if overseas countries can out-compete 110

us, then maybe something is awry. We ought to reexamine our fundamental precepts that high-value

added jobs will always be created here.”111

Nonetheless, mainstream economists continue to support unfettered free trade and believe that

globalization will raise the living standards of most Americans. They believe that trade in services,

especially BPO, like other forms of international trade, will benefit the United States. Neoclassical

economists acknowledge that some will gain while others will suffer but insist that the gains for the

winners will more than offset the pain suffered by the losers. For example, Jagdish Bhagwati of

Columbia University believes that concerns over outsourcing are greatly exaggerated. Counter to

Greider’s argument, Bhagwati said, “that the assessment of the Indian educations systems ‘almost

borders on the ludicrous’ and yields net economic losses only when foreign nations are closing the

innovation gap with the US.”112

Judy Dean, International Economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission contends that

arguments against comparative advantage fail on a number of levels. Comparative advantage is not static
See any standard undergraduate textbook such as P. Krugman and M. Obstfeldt, International 113

Economics, NY: Addison Wesley, 2005, for a discussion of the determinants of comparative advantage and how

those change over time.

Ibid. 114

Stephen Golub, “International Labor Standards and International Trade,” IMF Working Papers,

115

WP/97/137, 1997.

Asma Lateef, “Linking up with the Global Economy: A Case Study of the Bangalore Software Industry,” 116

International Labour Organization, DP/96/1997/, ISBN 92-9014-599-4, section 2.1.

 “India-bashing on BPO unfair: IMF,” The Economic Times, Dec. 3, 2004, found at 117

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-944709,prtpage-1.cms, retrieved Dec. 3, 2004.

Offshore Outsourcing and America’s Competitive Edge: Losing Out in the High Technology R&D and 118

Services Sector, Office of Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, May 11, 2004.

The Senator Lieberman sees three basic problems with this view: “(1) not only does rising

119

unemployment take a real human toll, it also eats at our ability to create new jobs. (2) advanced production

capabilities and R&D jobs are strategic assets that have defined our nation’s competitive advantage. (3) while

proximity to the point of sale is less critical, geography still matters in the innovative process. Countries are regions

that cluster university and industry research, knowledge-based start-ups, capital for entrepreneurs support from larger

firms, and advanced manufacturing - with the talent to support all this - capture new industries.”

32

and “throughout history countries’ comparative advantage have changed, due to changes in their relative

availability of capital, fertile land, labor, and technological knowhow. When countries follow this

shifting specialization, they use resources most productively and share in gains of the larger global

pie.” She asserts that the principle is not “undermined” when the factors of production move offshore. 113

Dean stated that “improved technological know-how, better access to ideas, migration of workers, and

foreign investment can all contribute to changing comparative advantage, but they are not necessary for

changes to take place. When factors of production do move, they tend to accelerate the shift in

comparative advantage that is already taking place.”114

Likewise, Dean believes that some outsourcing critics confuse low wages with low labor costs.

115

“Low wages,” according to Dean, “still generally reflect low productivity. Thus, countries with relatively

inexpensive labor typically have an abundance of very low-skilled workers. Workers who cost half as

much but are half as productive do not save a company any money. In 2001, with 39 percent of its adult

population still illiterate, India remains a country with relatively abundant low-skilled workers and,

hence, low wages on average. This gives the country a comparative advantage in lower-skilled labor

intensive products and in less-skill intensive aspects of industries like software.” Mary Amiti and 116

Shang-Jin of the IMF agree that “on the whole, welfare should improve as a result of outsourcing [but in

the] process some groups or individuals could be made worse off. But in aggregate, outsourcing does not

appear to be leading to net job loss - jobs lost in one industry often are offset by jobs created in other

growing industries.”117

Knowledge base: The offshoring discussion has become highly polarized, and the opposite

poles of the debate can be dividing into the “do-nothings”and the “do-anythings.” According to 118

Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), the do-nothings have an “abiding and absolute faith in laissez faire

capitalism and see any government intervention as self-defeating. In fact, they argue that jobs flowing

overseas is healthy, that they are evidence that the system is working, and that we have nothing to worry

about.” On the other hand, the “do-anythings” will embrace almost any policy or platform that will

119

save jobs in the short-term. “Protectionism,” says Senator Lieberman, “is their favorite tool - raising

higher and higher trade barriers on the unproven argument that it will make it harder and harder for jobs
Offshore Outsourcing and America’s Competitive Edge: Losing Out in the High Technology R&D and 120

Services Sector, Office of Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, May 11, 2004.

Meeting the Offshore Outsourcing Challenge Remarks by Senator Joe Lieberman, New America

121

Foundation and Electronic Industries Alliance, May 11, 2004.

Paul Craig Roberts, “Outsourcing: A New Occupational Hazard,” NewsMax,.com, March 10, 2004, 122

found at http://www.newsmax.com/scripts/printer_friendly.pl?page=http://newsmax.com./arch..., retrieved June 1,

2004.

Richard D’Aveni, Amos Tuck Business School, Dartmouth College, “The Outsourcing Threat Is: a) Big 123

b) Small c) Both,” The Washington Post, June 13, 2004, p. B4.

33

to go overseas.”

120

Senator Lieberman concluded that, “in their attempt to build a wall to stop offshore outsourcing,

the “do-anythings” are falling into a trap. Trying to keep jobs in our own borders through protectionist

measures will only keep other jobs out. It will invite retaliation from beyond our borders that will cost us

many of the millions of American jobs that are based on exports.” Neither group, says Senator

Lieberman, can solve the outsourcing problem since “neither gets to the heart of the outsourcing problem

- America’s failure to innovate. To stop offshore outsourcing and preserve American jobs, America needs

to rise to the international competition and grow again through innovation. Leaving it all to the markets

won’t work. Hiding behind a wall won’t work. Only education, innovation, investment, trade, training,

and hard work will give us the growth and jobs we want and need.” BPO critics assert that offshoring 121

of high-paying white-collar jobs threatens the United States by exerting downward pressure on wages,

lessening the tax base, endangering national security, and by eroding America’s technological leadership

and its competitive advantage in the global marketplace. 

Education: Critics claim that offshoring eliminates entry level IT jobs and will eventually

discourage American students from entering the computer science and engineering fields, thereby

threatening the country’s leadership in technology and innovation. Enrollment in computer science and

computer engineering programs at U.S. universities was down 23 percent in 2004 and in March 2004 the

New York Times reported that MIT’s best graduates were leaving the computer engineering school.

Enrollment in computer science declined by 33 percent in 2 years.122

Wage depression: Conventional economic wisdom says that if a large number of less

expensive and more highly-skilled workers becomes available around the world, competition may drive

down U.S. wages for a great number of white-collar business process outsourcingservices workers.

Richard D’Aveni of Dartmouth College thinks that “the excess labor supply abroad is going to have [a]

significant impact on the wages in service industries, just as it has had on manufacturing wages over the

past 20 years. More broadly, I can see the offshoring phenomenon putting a lot of pressure on our

educational system to develop better knowledge workers able to remain competitive with India and the

rest of the world. A major question for us as a nation will be whether we will find extra resources for

education in the face of increasing outlays for pensions and healthcare for aging baby boomers, interest

on the national debt, or the demands of the war on terrorism. I believe we’re going to have a problem

maintaining our lead as the best knowledge workers in the world.”123

Protectionism: Fear of job loss has awakened anti-offshoring sentiments in the American

public, which has called for limitations on companies moving jobs offshore. As of March 2005, a total of

112 anti-outsourcing bills were making their way through 40 state legislatures. In 2004, there were 107
A New Jersey bill prohibits state contract work from being offshored and bills in Oklahoma and 124

Mississippi deal with offshore call centers. “Outsourcing: 100 US Bills target India,” The Economic Times, May 12,

2005, found at http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1107048,prtpage-1.cms, retrieved June 15,

2005.

Other bills introduced in 2004 include: Defending American Jobs Act, United States Workers Protection

125

Act, USA Job Protection Act, and Jobs for America Act.

 Danielle DiMartino, “Free trade has been a blessing,” Dallas Morning News.

126

Ibid. 127

Daniel Griswold, “Foreign Outsourcing Invigorates the US economy,” Cato Institute, Sept. 2004. 128

Edward Luce, “Booming Bangalore will be backing Bush to win again,” Financial Times, Sept. 22, 129

2004, p. 14.

34

bills in 33 states, five of which became law. In the federal FY2004, Congress included a provision in 124

the Federal Omnibus Appropriations Act that prohibited the use of foreign workers for some government

jobs. Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher said that “erecting barriers to competition 125

through protectionism is risky behavior that may please some special interests momentarily but is certain

to lead to economic decline over the long term.”126

Loss of knowledge base: Some analysts have identified a trend where U.S. corporations have

increasingly outsourced their research and development functions offshore as a significant factor that

could affect U.S. global competitiveness. U.S. corporations now invest more than $17 billion annually in

offshore R&D services. George Gilbert, managing partner of Tech Strategy Partners, called this trend a

“disturbing development.” A study conducted by the Administrative Staff College of India indicated that

77 global companies have established R&D centers in India. Other firms have formed R&D alliances

with or have contracted research to local firms. “What is surprising is the list of industries doing R&D

work out of India is varied, ranging from telecommunications service providers and equipment

manufacturers, chip designers and IT hardware companies to plastics and pharmaceuticals producers,”

said Manoj Kunkalienkar, executive director and president of Indian outsourcing company ICICI

InfoTech. “I believe it’s just a matter of time before India is recognized as ‘the world’s R&D center”or

‘the knowledge hub.” 

127

Offshore outsourcing literature 

This section reviews research pertaining to the offshoring of business services to low-cost

countries. Most of the reports on the outsourcing of business process services, particularly those

appearing in the popular press, are based largely on surveys performed by management consulting firms.

These stories focus primarily on job losses due to outsourcing, but not the potential for job creation and

the possibility for of a net job gain for the U.S. economy. The popular press also does not focus on the

possibility that trade in services could generate net benefits to the U.S. economy, such as lower prices to

consumers, higher dividends to shareholders, growing exports, greater job security and higher wages for

the remaining workers, and greater overall economic efficiencies.128

Bhagwati asserted that, “there is an emotion on outsourcing that runs through talk radio and

popular media in the U.S. that is quite out of proportion to the number of jobs that have migrated. One

reason is that it is easier to see the losses, whereas the gains to the U.S. economy, which clearly

outweighs the losses, are less easily visible.”129

The literature cited in the next section shows that the number of services jobs that U.S.

corporations send offshore constitutes only a minor portion of the overall U.S. labor market. Despite all
Lori G. Kletzer, “Globalization and job loss, from manufacturing to services,” Economic Perspective,

130

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, 2Q/2005. 

35

the attention outsourcing has generated, insufficient data exist to quantitatively analyze the job loss trend

(Kletzer 2005). However, a number of qualitative studies have been released during the past few years 130

related to the offshoring of business services.

Business-industry and Consulting companies views and estimates

The analyses of the offshore outsourcing of business services and employment effects on the

U.S. economy have been conducted primarily by management consultant firms. These consulting firms

generally agree that the outsourcing of business services will grow tremendously over the next several

years as U.S. companies export more of their back office functions to low-cost countries. The most

prominent of these consultant reports were generated by Forrester Research, Deloitte Research, Global

Insight, the McKinsey Global Institute, and Gartner Research. Two firms, Forrester Research and Gartner

Research, provide forecasts of potential U.S. IT and business services jobs lost to low-cost countries,

whereas Global Insight and McKinsey Global Institute provide a discussion of the net employment

effects on the U.S. labor market due of outsourcing. Deloitte Research provides insights into potential job

loss and cost savings in the international financial services industry. A summary of the findings and

forecasts of these consulting companies are presented in Box 3.

Box 3: Summary of forecasts by leading U.S. consulting companies

Company Forecasts

Forrester Research Forrester estimated that 3.4 million U.S. jobs will be lost to low-cost countries by 2015,

representing nearly $136 million in wages. Of these, between 315,000 and 400,000 were

offshored between 2000 and 2004. 

Deloitte Research Deloitte predicted that $210 billion in industry costs would be outsourced by the end of 2005

and $400 billion by the end of 2010 and that approximately 2 million jobs in the finance

industry would be sent to low-cost countries by 2008. 

Global Insight Global predicted that spending by U.S. companies on the offshore outsourcing of computer

software and services would grow at a 26 percent compound annual rate from nearly $10

billion in 2003 to $31 billion in 2008. It forecast offshore outsourcing would create more than

90,000 net new U.S. jobs in 2003 and an additional 317,000 net new U.S. jobs by 2008. 

McKinsey Global Institute McKinsey predicted that approximately 90,000 net new jobs will be created throughout the

U.S. economy, and $33.6 billion was added to the U.S. GDP in 2003 and $124.2 billion will

be added through 2008. By offshore outsourcing of business services and software

development McKinsey projected that the U.S. IT industry could save as much as $390 million

by 2010.

Gartner Research In 2004, Gartner estimated that the global market for offshoring of IT and business services

would grow to $130 billion by the end of 2005. It also projected that the number of U.S. IT

positions offshored will grow to 30 percent by 2015 and that 10 percent of U.S. computer

services and software positions would be sent offshore by the end of 2004. 

Forrester studies: Forrester is a widely quoted consulting firm that published a series of surveys

and papers on business outsourcing to India and other countries. The most frequently cited Forrester

report was published in 2002 and it estimated that 3.3 million U.S. jobs will be lost to outsourcing by
Forrester estimated that, as of April 2004, only 300,000 white-collar jobs had been offshored that 131

represented approximately 0.2 percent of the U.S. job market. Also, its 3.3. million projection represents

approximately 2 percent of total U.S. non-farm employment. Of this total, Forrester estimated that only 500,000 are

actually IT-related jobs. Near-Term Growth of Offshore Accelerating, Forrester Research, 2002. 3.3 Million U.S.

Services Jobs to Go Offshore, Forrester Research, Nov. 11, 2002.

Patrick Thibodeau, “Forrester adjusts outsourcing numbers upward,” Computerworld, May 17, 2004, 132

found at http://www.computerworld.com/printthis/2004/0.4814,93217,00.html, retrieved Sept. 13, 2005.

 “Behind Outsourcing Debate: Surprisingly Few Hard Numbers,” The Wall Street Journal, Apr. 12, 133

2004, found at http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/outsourcing/out_numbers.htm, retrieved Sept. 13, 2005.

See, “The U.S. Economy to 2012: signs of growth,” Monthly Labor Review, Department of Labor,

134

Bureau of Labor Statistics, Feb. 2004.

W. David Gardner, “Report: Offshore Outsourcers Seek Risk Balance,” TechWeb.com, found at 135

http://www.techweb.com/wire/26804840, retrieved Apr. 12, 2005.

Namely: Management occupations (11-0000); Business and Financial Operations occupations (13- 136

0000), Computer and mathematical occupations (15-0000), Architecture and engineering occupations (17-0000),

Life, physical, and social science occupations (19-0000), Legal occupations (23-0000), Arts, design, entertainment,

sports, and media occupations (27-0000), Sales and related occupations (41-0000), and Office and administrative

support occupations (43-0000). “Offshoring increases at faster pace, Forrester says,” ITWorld.com, May 17, 2004,

found at http://www.itworld.com/Man/2701/040517outsourcingup/, retrieved Apr. 12, 2005.

Forrester relied on a series of surveys of user companies and business and IT leaders, trips to India to 137

meet with offshore companies, and vendor briefings. Forrester updated the baseline job data based on U.S.

Department of Labor (BLS) data on National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates. Forrester reassessed

the growth curves for the four offshore rankings and added year-by year (granularity) for 2003 through 2008.

Forrester then re-evaluated the “offshoreability” of each job category based on: the nature of the work - is it

knowledge or transaction intensivity; to what degree the process is automated; whether the skills are available

offshore; and what third-party offshore investments in skills are needed to do the work. “Forrester Finds Near-Term

Growth of Offshore Outsourcing Accelerating,” Forrester Research, Press Release, May 17, 2004, found at

http://www.forrester.com/ER/press/release/0,1769,922,00.html, retrieved Sept. 13, 2005.

36

2015, representing approximately $136 billion in wages and about 8 percent of all U.S. IT jobs. On 131

May 17, 2004, Forrester adjusted its estimates upward to 3.4 million U.S. jobs lost. John C. McCarthy, 132

Forrester vice president, believes his company’s estimates are “consistent with the sentiment in the

literature that service outsourcing, although now very low, has been steadily increasing.”133

A Forrester study reported that between 315,000 and 400,000 IT and service sector jobs were

offshored between 2000 and 2003. Due to changes in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment

Outlook for 2002-2012, Forrester adjusted its near-term estimates of job dislocation by the end of 2005 134

upward from 590,000 to 830,000. Forrester indicated that 76 percent of all U.S. IT and business services

jobs offshored were from Fortune 1,000 companies. However, Forrester asserted that approximately 63

percent of America’s largest 1,000 companies have yet to participate in the offshoring IT and business

services.135

Forrester’s findings were based on a detailed breakdown of nine major occupational categories

from the Standard Occupational Classification system maintained by the Bureau of Labor Statistics

(BLS). The jobs are the ones most commonly associated with outsourcing of business services (table

136

11). The projection of 3.3 million jobs lost to outsourcing may seem large, but relative to the total U.S. 137

employment, these projections represented less than 3 percent of the total U.S. labor force in 2002.
Offshoring and Cross-Border Outsourcing by Banks, Deloitte Research, 2004. The Titans Take Hold,

138

Offshore Customer Management conference, Deloitte Research, Nov. 1, 2004.

Results were based a Deloitte survey of 43 financial institutions in 7 countries, including 13 of the 139

world’s most important financial services companies. The Titans Take Hold, Deloitte Research Report, Deloitte

Research, Nov. 1, 2004.

Offshoring and Cross-Border Outsourcing by Banks, Deloitte Research, 2004. 140

The Titans Take Hold, Offshore Customer Management conference, Deloitte Research, Nov. 1, 2004. 141

37

Table 11: Forrester’s projections for U.S. jobs moving offshore to low wage countries

Occupational category 2005 2010 2015 Difference 2005-2015

Life, physical, and social science occupations 4,000 16,000 39,000 35,000

Legal occupations 20,000 39,000 79,000 59,000

Art, design, entertainment, sports, and medical

occupations

 8,000 15,000 30,000 22,000

Management occupations 34,000 106,000 259,000 225,000

Business operations occupations 91,000 176,000 356,000 265,000

Computer & mathematical occupations 181,000 322,000 542,000 524,000

Architecture and engineering occupations 46,000 93,000 191,000 145,000

Sales and related occupations 38,000 97,000 218,000 180,000

Office and administrative support occupations 410,000 815,000 1,600,000 1,190,000

Total 830,000 1,700,000 3,300,000 2,570,000

Source: Forrester Research, Inc., May 14, 2004

Deloitte studies: According to Deloitte, international banks and insurance companies offshore a

broad variety of jobs in application development, coding and programming, accounting and finance,

operations, processing and administration, contract support, and call-center operations. In two-reports,

Deloitte predicted that offshoring in financial services will continue to grow throughout this decade.138

The firm’s analysts predicted that $210 billion in industry costs would be outsourced by the end of 2005

and $400 billion by the end of 2010. Deloitte analysts also projected that the industry would transfer

approximately 2 million jobs to low-cost countries by 2008. As evidence, a Deloitte study stated that 139

the share of global financial services companies with offshore facilities increased from 29 percent of the

total in 2002 to 67 percent in 2003. 

A Deloitte survey estimated that financial institutions that sent portions of their services to lowcost countries achieved an average cost savings of 39 percent. Chris Gentle of Deloitte, concluded that, 140

“industry executives believe that, by 2010, more than 20 percent of the industry’s global cost base will

have shifted offshore, with average savings climbing to 37 percent from today’s 32 percent. Large

financial institutions who can achieve significant economies of scale tend to be the biggest beneficiaries

–gaining significant competitive advantages over their smaller rivals, many of whom remain wholly

onshore.”141

In a second survey, Deloitte projected that the world’s financial-services institutions will

outsource $356 billion in services, or 15 percent of the industry’s cost base, to low-cost countries by the
Outsourcing in Financial Services, Bank for International Settlements, Feb. 2003. 

142

“Trends for offshoring grows,” Finance Partners, Apr. 4, 2004, found at 143

http://www.financepartners.co.uk/fp/showNews.php?id=87, retrieved Sept. 13, 2005.

 The study was based on a survey of 25 major “world class” companies from manufacturing,

144

transportation, consumer business, energy, financial services, technology-media-telecommunication, health care, and

the public sector. Calling a Change in the Outsourcing Market, Deloitte Research, 2005. “Deloitte: Most big

companies report poor outsourcing savings,” Indus Business Journal, May 15, 2005, found at

http://www.indusbusinessjournal.com/global_user_elements/printpage.cfm?storyid=951699, retrieved Sept. 13,

2005.

According to Global Insight, “the analysis was undertaken in the context of Global Insight’s economic 145

models and incorporates information from third-party research reports, members of the IT industry, and primary

research surveys.” ITAA/Global Insight Study Finds IT Outsourcing Results In Net U.S. Job Growth, Global Insight,

March 30, 2004, found at http://www.globalinsight.com/About/PressRelease/PressRelease855.htm, retrieved Aug.

30, 2005.

38

end of 2010. The survey revealed that by outsourcing to low-cost destinations the world’s leading 100

142

financial services companies could achieve an annual cost savings of $138 billion by 2008, or an average

of $1.4 billion per company. It also projected that the U.S. industry could achieve savings of 20 percent

of the total industry cost base.

143

Deloitte’s surveys identified India as the the leading location for international outsourcing for the

world’s financial services industry. Deloitte’s analysts estimated that nearly 80 percent of all financial

services offshoring takes place in India. However, Deloitte officials believe that offshoring will

eventually expand to other countries in the Indian Ocean Rim, such as South Africa, China, Malaysia, the

Philippines, and Australia. By the end of this decade, Deloitte expects 1 million jobs to be relocated by

the world’s financial services sector to the Indian Ocean Rim.

Deloitte’s surveys also revealed that 70 percent of the world’s largest financial services

organizations have had negative experiences with outsourcing. Deloitte analysts noted that 20 percent of

its survey respondents were dissatisfied with outsourcing and returned at least a portion of their

outsourced work back in-house. One survey also revealed that 62 percent of the respondents realized 144

that outsourced work required more management in comparison to the original estimates; 57 percent of

respondents said they could not free up internal resources for other projects, leading to more overhead;

and 52 percent ranked cost-related issues as the main risk of outsourcing; 81 percent had limited or no

transparency pricing and cost structure, resulting in increased chances of paying additional costs. A total

of 83 percent of respondents said they have renegotiated outsourcing deals because of lower costs and

changes to their business, technology, and regulatory environment; 53 percent have moved from long

term contracts (6 to 10 years) to shorter contracts (up to 5 years) to increase flexibility and bargaining

power; 73 percent are working with multiple outsourcing companies to reduce dependency; and 45

percent are forced to include gain-sharing clauses with outsourcing companies as motivation for

innovation, highlighting continuous concern about vendor complacency.

Global Insight studies: Global’s The Impact of Offshore IT Software and Services Outsourcing

on the U.S. Economy and the IT Industry (2004), commissioned by the Information Technology

Association of America, asserted that U.S. companies will continue to outsource IT software and

business services for the foreseeable future in search of cost savings, quality, access to global markets

and talents, and labor productivity gains. The study also predicted that spending by U.S. companies on 145

the outsourcing of computer software and services would grow at a 26 percent compound annual rate

from nearly $10 billion in 2003 to $31 billion in 2008, while total savings from outsourcing would grow

from $6.7 billion to $20.9 billion during the same period. Global predicted that this spending represented
The Comprehensive Impact of Offshore IT Software and Services Outsourcing on the U.S. Economy and 146

the IT Industry, Global Insight, Executive Summary, sponsored by ITAA, March 2004. 

39

2.3 percent of total U.S. firm spending on IT software and 6.2 percent on services, between 2003 and

2008. The study also asserted that offshore outsourcing added $33.6 billion to U.S. real GDP in 2003 and

predicted that U.S. real GDP would be $124.2 billion higher in 2008 because of the offshore outsourcing

of IT software and business service. 

146

Global Insight’s study also predicted that the benefits to the U.S. economy derived from offshore

outsourcing will more than offset any pain and suffering caused by the dislocation of U.S. workers. It

forecast that the economic activity associated with offshore outsourcing would create more than 90,000

net new U.S. jobs in 2003 and an additional 317,000 net new U.S. jobs by 2008 (table 12). Global

predicted that the economy would create 516,000 additional software and services positions by 2009, but

only 490,000 without its presence. Global’s study estimated that 272,000 of the 516,000 positions will go

offshore, while 244,000 will remain within the United States, representing a net gain from the U.S.

economy. The study also asserted that real wages of U.S. workers actually increased by 0.13 percent

because of offshore outsourcing and predicted that real wages would be 0.44 percent higher in 2008.

According to Global, the major groups expected to gain from outsourcing included education and health

services, transportation and utilities, construction, wholesale trade, financial services, professional and

business services, and manufacturing. 

Global predicted that nearly 372,000 IT software and services positions, or 10 percent of all IT

software and services jobs, have vanished since 2000. Global analysts said that these jobs disappeared as

a result of aggressive hiring practices in the late 1990s, the mild recession of 2001, labor productivity

gains, and those advantages derived from changing technologies. Global stated that only 2.8 percent of

all jobs lost was due to offshore outsourcing. The industry sectors cited by Global that were most

negatively impacted by offshore outsourcing were the publishing and software and communications

sectors. Global also asserts that real U.S. exports of IT services and software were $2.3 billion higher in

2003 due to offshore outsourcing and will be $9 billion higher in 2008.

Table 12: Incremental Employment Increase by industry

Industry sector (NAICS code) Net new jobs Total employment with offshore ITO

2003 2008 2003 2008

Natural resources & mining (212)

Construction (23)

Manufacturing (31-33)

Wholesale trade (42)

Retail trade (44-45)

Transportation & utilities (48 & 22) 

Publishing, software & communications (51)

Financial services (52)

Professional & business services (54)

Education & health services (61 & 62)

Leisure, hospitality & other services (71)

Government (92)

 Total employment

 1,046

 19,815

 3,078

 20,456

 12,552

 18,895

-24,860

 5,604

 14,667

 18,015

 4,389

 -3,393

 90,264

 1,182

 75,757

 25,010

 43,359

 30,931

 63,513

 -50,043

 32,066

 31,623

 47,260

 12,506

 4,203

317,367

 562,953

 6,813,323

 14,301,493

 5,817,096

 14,982,090

 4,902,726

 3,325,202

 7,807,356

 15,946,375

 16,566,840

 17,351,984

 21,490,648

129,868,086

 466,367

 7,763,619

 14,348,283

 6,301,966

 15,138,270

 5,688,011

 3,507,217

 8,167,050

 19,651,930

 18,331,695

 18,396,412

 22,372,105

140,132,925

Source: Global Insight. 
Offshoring: Is it a Win-Win Game?, McKinsey Global Institute, 2002. 

147

Syed Amin Jafri, “Nasscom-McKinsey study predicts $80 billion potential for Indian IT sector in 2008,” 148

rediff.com, June 10, 2002, found at http://www.rediff.com/money/2002/jun/10nass.htm, retrieved Sept. 14, 2005.

Vivek Agrawal and Diana Farrell, “Who wins in offshoring,” The McKinsey Quarterly, 2003 Special 149

Edition, found at http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_page.aspx?ar=1363&l2=7&l3=10&srid=6&g...,

retrieved Aug. 30, 2005.

Looking at 8 industry sectors (auto, health care, insurance, IT services, retail, retail banking, packaged

150

software, and pharmaceuticals) McKinsey estimated that 18.3 million jobs in these sectors could be done offshore.

Through “extrapolation” McKinsey calculated that for these 8 sectors in the global economy in 2008 (160 million

jobs) representing nearly 11 percent of the envisioned world’s 1.46 billion service jobs that could be offshored.

The Emerging Global Labor Market, McKinsey Global Institute, June 2005.

 Erika Kinetz, “Crunching the numbers for a true picture of outsourcing,” International Herald Tribune, 151

June 18, 2005, found at http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2005/06/17/yourmoney/mlabor.php,

retrieved July 13, 2005.

McKinsey’s figures were generated by extrapolating from analysis of 9 industrial sectors including:

152

auto, health care, insurance, information technology services, retail, retail banking, packaged software, and

pharmaceuticals. These sectors account for 50 percent of U.S. non-farm employment.

40

McKinsey Global Institute studies: McKinsey’s Offshoring: Is it a Win-Win Game? (2003) and

Nasscom-McKinsey Study 2002 are widely cited studies on the offshoring of business services.147

McKinsey projected that by 2008 India’s IT software and services sector will employ nearly 4 million

Indians, account for 7 percent of India’s GNP, and 30 percent of its foreign exchange inflows. India’s IT

software and services sector is projected to reach between $28 billion and $30 billion by 2008, with the

information technology enabled services-BPO (ITES) segment accounting for between $21 billion and

$24 billion. The report predicts that the products and technology services industry will grow to 148

between $8 billion and $10 billion and a domestic software market will reach between $13 billion and

$15 billion. Export revenues from IT software and services exports are expected to grow from 8 percent

of India’s foreign exchange inflows in 2002 to more than 30 percent by 2008. McKinsey predicts that by

2008, the information technology enabled services segment of the industry is expected to create more

than 1 million jobs in India.

By offshore outsourcing of business services and software development McKinsey projected that

the U.S. IT and services industry could save as much as $390 million by 2010. In June 2005, 149

McKinsey published a three-part report on how offshore outsourcing of business services will affect

world industries, wages, and employment. The report asserted that only 11 percent (160 million) of the 150

world’s 1.46 billion services jobs can be performed offshore. According to McKinsey, approximately

151

1.2 million jobs were performed in low-cost countries in 2003 and it projects that this figure will reach

4.1 million, or 1.2 percent of all service jobs, by 2008. The report identified two industry sectors it 152

believes are the most vulnerable to offshore outsourcing; packaged software and IT service sector jobs. It

stated that nearly 50 percent of the packaged software and IT services sector jobs could potentially be

outsourced. The report estimated that 25 percent of the banking, 52 percent of engineering jobs, 31

percent of finance and accounting jobs, and 19 percent of insurance IT and services related jobs could be

outsourced offshore and performed remotely. Nonetheless, McKinsey believes that in the near term that

the number outsourced service jobs will remain small in comparison to total employment in the United

States and the developed world. 

 In Offshoring: Is it a Win-Win Game?, McKinsey asserted that offshoring of business processes

generates wealth for both the United States and for India. McKinsey calculated that for every dollar that

U.S. companies outsourced offshore that the global economy gained $1.47, generating a net gain of 47

cents to outsourcing companies. The study also concluded that India captures 33 cents of that dollar in
Offshoring: Is it a Win-Win Game?, McKinsey Global Institute, Aug. 2003. 153

Ibid. 154

41

the form of wages paid to local workers, revenues and profits earned by Indian outsourcing vendors and

their suppliers, profits earned by local business process outsourcing firms and their suppliers, and taxes

collected by the government (table 13).153

Table 13: Benefits of offshoring to India, according to McKinsey Global Institute

Offshore sector Items Value ($) Total value ($)

Labor 0.10

0.20

Profit retained in India 0.10

Suppliers Revenue to supplier

industries net of taxes

0.09 0.09

Government taxes central government 0.03

state government 0.01 0.04

Total benefit 0.33

Source: McKinsey Global Institute.

Likewise, the McKinsey report estimated that for every dollar offshored by U.S. companies the

U.S. economy captured a potential net benefit of between $1.12 and 1.14 (table 14). McKinsey 154

calculated that U.S. companies save 58 cents for every dollar of work that is moved offshore and that

those savings could be reinvested in new business opportunities, pay additional dividends to

shareholders, or result in lower prices for consumers. The study said benefits were redistributed as

follows: 45 to 47 cents redistributed through the creation of new jobs or the re-employment of workers; 4

cents for repatriated earnings; 5 cents for additional exports from low-cost countries for computers,

telecommunications equipment, other machinery and equipment; and through the procurement of U.S.

services (financial, legal, marketing). Consequently offshore outsourcing created a net additional value to

the U.S. economy of 12 cents to 14 cents that would not have existed without outsourcing.

Table 14: Benefits of offshoring to the United States

Direct benefits Items Value ($) Total value ($)

Savings to U.S. investors and customers through cost differentials 0.58 0.67

Import of U.S. goods and services by India (computer hardware

devices)

0.05

Profit repatriation by U.S. companies back from India 0.04

Indirect benefits Value from U.S. labor redeployed

0.45 to 0.47

Total benefit of outsourcing to the U.S. 1.12 - 1.14

Source: McKinsey Global Institute.
“Outsourcing creates jobs, study says,” CNN Money, March 30, 2004, found at 155

http://cnnmoney.printhis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=outsourcing+creates+j..., retrieved May 23, 2005. 

Sharon Gaudin, “Gartner: 1/4 of U.S. IT Jobs Offshored by 2010,” IT Management, March 26, 2004, 156

found at http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/career/print.php/3331751, retrieved Sept. 16, 2005.

Paul McDougall, “30% of Tech Jobs At Risk From Offshoring, Gartner Says,” InformationWeek, Apr.

157

4, 2005, found at http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printablearticlesrc.jhtml?articleid=160401701, retrieved

Sept. 16, 2005. 

 Gartner noted the offshore portion would account for only 5 percent of the market in 2007. Andy 158

McCue, “Gartner: Outsourcing costs more than in-house,” Cnet News, March 4, 2005, found at

http://news.com.com/2102-1022_3-5600485.html?tag=st.util.print, retrieved Sept. 16, 2005.

Paul McDougall, “Exclusive: Gartner Predicts Huge Increase in Offshore Outsourcing by 2015,” 159

Outsourcing Pipeline, March 31, 2005, found at

http//www.outsourcingpipeline.com/shared/article/printablearticlesrc.jhtml?articleID=160..., retrieved Sept. 13,

2005.

Offshore Outsourcing of Data Services by Insured Institutions and Associated Consumer Privacy Risks,

160

FDIC, found at http://www.fdic.gov/regulations/examinations/offshore/background.html, retrieved Sept. 13, 2005.

42

While the McKinsey study acknowledges that outsourcing offshore leads to worker dislocation in

the short term, the economy, the business community, and consumers will be much better off in the long

term. McKinsey predicts in Offshoring: Is It a Win-Win Game? that approximately 90,000 net new jobs

are being created throughout the U.S. economy. Additionally, $33.6 billion was added to the U.S. GDP in

2003 and $124.2 billion will be added through 2008. “Outsourcing lifts wages,” the study concluded,

“though minimally, real-wages were 0.13 percent higher in 2003 because of outsourcing and could be

0.44 percent higher by 2008.”

155

McKinsey also reported that the supply of qualified low-cost labor in India and other developing

countries will not meet demand in the future, except for the field of engineering. McKinsey analyzed

university graduation rates in 28 low-wage countries and found that only 6.4 million of the 33 million

university graduates with up to 7 years of experienced were qualified for employment in a multinational

corporation. The remainder lacked sufficient language skills, were limited by cultural barriers, were

inaccessible geographically, or they chose to work for domestic companies.

Gartner Research studies: The offshore outsourcing of IT and business services has become the

most commonly used delivery model, according to Gartner Research. The potential cost savings it offers

are so compelling that participating companies can gain a significant cost advantage over their

competitors. In 2004, Gartner estimated that the global market for offshoring of IT and business 156

services would grow to $130 billion by the end of 2005. It also predicted that global spending on research

and development would grow from $1.25 billion in 2004 to $12 billion by 2010, spending on

infrastructure outsourcing would grow from between $100 million and $250 million to between $3

billion and $4 billion, and spending on application-development services would grow from $23 billion to

approximately $50 billion during the same time period. Gartner also predicted that global spending on 157

customer service outsourcing would grow from $8.4 billion in 2004 to $12.2 billion in 2007.

158

Gartner indicated that less than 5 percent of the IT positions in the United States and other

developed nations have been sent offshore. It projected that the number of IT positions offshored will

grow to 30 percent by 2015. In a research report published in 2003, Gartner predicted that 10 percent 159

of U.S. computer services and software positions would be sent offshore by the end of 2004.160

Nonetheless, this will not result in a net loss of jobs in the United States, says Gartner, because the

effects of automation and gains in labor productivity will have a far greater impact on IT job
“An offshoring tidal wave to come?” Cnet News, April 1, 2005, found at http://news.com.com/2061- 161

10788_3-5650697.html, retrieved Sept. 16, 2005. 

John Riberio, “Gartner: India’s BPO market likely to lose market share,” Network World, Aug. 30, 162

2004, found at http://www.networkworld.com/cgi-bin/mailto/x.cgi, retrieved Sept. 16, 2005. 

43

displacement than offshoring.161

Gartner analysts believe most of the offshored jobs lost by the developed world will be sent to

low-cost countries like India, the Philippines, Malaysia, and China. Although India is the preferred

location for U.S. companies, Gartner predicted that its market share would decline from 80 percent in

2004 to approximately 55 percent by 2007. Gartner does not expect any one nation to contest India’s 162

position rather a number of nations will arise to challenge India’s preeminent position. Gartner’s study

also asserted that because India has no long-term plan for improving its infrastructure or increasing its

talent pool, the country will also face a serious challenge from other English-speaking countries like

Ghana, South Africa, Mauritius, Fiji, Malaysia, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand. Gartner’s study 

also predicted that China will also challenge India by 2007. However, China’s limited English-speaking

capabilities will limit the challenge and Gartner believes that China will not challenge India in voicebased services, but only in the lower-end transaction processing work (rules and form-based processing). 

Academic literature

The academic literature related to offshoring of business services is growing. Recent

contributions include: Amiti and Wei (2004); Bhagwati, Panagariya, and Srinivasan (2004); Mann

(2003); Bardhan and Kroll (2003); and Jensen and Kletzer (2005). These authors did not identify strong

correlation between offshore outsourcing and job loss. Bhagwati found that the current public concern

over job loss was misplaced because nearly 90 percent of all service sector jobs require geographic

proximity and therefore cannot be outsourced. Many of these studies conclude that even if the most dire

predictions on job loss come true, job losses would affect less than 2 percent of the U.S. labor market

because job displacement would be overshadowed by gains in efficiency, higher levels of output, job

creation in other sectors of the economy, and higher average real wages. The authors used different

analytical techniques to examine the question including statistical analysis, conceptual framework, and

data analysis. A summary of their findings in the academic literature is presented in Box 4. 
Mary Amiti and Shang-Jin Wei, Fear of Service Outsourcing: Is It Justified? International Monetary

163

Fund (IMF) Working Paper, WP/04/186, Sept. 2004. 

44

Box 4: Summary of the findings in the academic literature 

Amiti and Wei (2004) The authors asserted that the data did not support the prevailing level of anxiety in the United States

over massive job losses caused by offshoring. They also found that the effect on net employment

depended upon what level U.S. manufacturing industries are disaggregated and they estimated a

small negative effect on U.S. employment when economy was segmented into 450 sectors, but

found the negative effect disappeared when the U.S. industry sectors were was more broadly

defined.

Bhagwati, Panagariya,

and Srinivasan (2004)

The authors stated that the impact of the offshoring of services on the U.S. labor market is relatively

minor. They constructed a conceptual framework to argue that trade in services is similar to trade

in goods. Bhagwati et al stated that not all jobs can be sent offshore and that nearly 70 percent of all

U.S. jobs require physical proximity and cannot be outsourced offshore .

Catherine Mann

(2003)

Mann expects that the offshoring of services will also bring lower prices for consumers, more

affordable business services, facilitate job-creating investment, and lead to higher worker

productivity. Mann asserted that employment in those areas considered at risk to IT outsourcing

were, for the most part, either stable or recovering. 

Bardhan and Kroll

(2003)

The authors asserted that Forrester’s claim now seems conservative and concluded that 14 million

manufacturing and non-manufacturing positions were vulnerable to outsourcing, representing

approximately 11 percent of the total U.S. workforce.

Jensen and Kletzer

(2005)

Jensen and Kletzer concluded that workers in tradable service industries possess different

demographic characteristics that their counterparts in non-tradable industries; displacement rates for

services industry workers are lower than for manufacturing and re-employment rates are higher; and

earning losses are lower for displaced services workers than for displaced manufacturing workers.

Amiti and Wei: The authors contributed two studies on the effects of offshoring of business

 services on employment and productivity in developing economies. In Fear of Service Outsourcing: Is It

Justified? (2004), the authors point out that the outsourcing of business services has received a 163

tremendous amount of negative attention in the press. Much of the anxiety associated with offshore

outsourcing in developed economies has centered primarily on the outsourcing of services. The authors

asserted that this anxiety gives the impression that the outsourcing of services is somehow “quantitatively

different” from material outsourcing. Amiti and Wei noted that stories on business process outsourcing in

the popular press have been based primarily on reports prepared by management consulting firms rather

than on academic research. Amiti and Wei indicated that there is substantial literature related to materialinput outsourcing but very little on services outsourcing. 

The chief aim of the Amiti and Wei study was to differentiate the unfounded assumptions from

the facts about job losses associated with services outsourcing. The study centered on business services

and computing and information services as the most commonly cited professional job categories

associated with outsourcing. The authors examined the United Kingdom as potentially illustrative of the

effects of outsourcing on the United States. The authors analyzed 69 U.K. manufacturing industries and 9

service industries over the 1995 to 2002 period. They found that although offshore outsourcing of

services in the United Kingdom has been steadily growing, but remains at very low levels. The authors

asserted that the data did not support the prevailing level of anxiety in the United States over massive job

losses caused by offshoring. They also found no evidence that outsourcing led to employment losses in

the UK or any correlation between higher levels of outsourcing and a slower rate of job growth in the
Amiti and Wei employ annual input/output tables and trade data to measure service and material 164

outsourcing. Mary Amiti and Shang-Jin Wei, Service Outsourcing, Productivity and Employment: Evidence from the

US, International Monetary Fund (IMF), May, 2005. 

Mary Amiti and Shang-Jin Wei, “Demystifying Outsourcing,” Finance & Development, IMF, Dec.

165

2004.

Jagdish Bhagwati, Arvind Panagariya, and T.N. Srinivasan, “The Muddles over Outsourcing,” Journal 166

of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 18, No. 4, Fall 2004, pp. 93-114.

Mode 1 services, according to the World Trade Organization, are services that involve “arm’s length 167

supply of services, with the supplier and buyer remaining in their respective locations.” These services “have come

into predominance because of the advances in electronic information and communications technology that allow

rapid flow of voluminous data across international boundaries.” 

 According to the authors, the debate surrounding outsourcing flared with controversial comments made 168

by the chair of President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisors, Gregory Mankiw in February 2004. Critics accused

Mankiw of advocating a reduction in U.S. jobs. Following Mankiw’s statements the term outsourcing was linked

almost solely with the offshoring of business services.

45

United Kingdom.

In a second study, Amiti and Wei found that the effect of outsourcing on employment depended

upon the level of U.S. manufacturing industries disaggregation. The authors discovered a small

164

negative effect of approximately 0.5 percent on employment when the U.S. economy is segmented into

450 sectors, but found the negative effect disappeared when the U.S. industry sectors were more broadly

defined. As they expected, when the U.S. economy was segmented into a more aggregated level (96

sectors) the authors found that the effect disappeared and that there was no correlation between job

growth and growth of outsourcing at the sector level. The authors conclude that “importing service inputs

may lead to a substitution effect away from labor but increasing demand in other industries offsets this

effect.” This is in contrast to the popular media generated belief that the outsourcing of services was

“exploding,” when in fact the overall employment effect has been small. 

The data revealed that offshore outsourcing of business services is still at a relatively modest

level. Using International Monetary Fund data, the authors found that of business services, as a

percentage of U.S. GDP, increased from 0.1 percent in 1983 to 0.2 percent in 1993 and to 0.4 percent in

2003. The United States is the world’s leading importer of business services, but as a percentage of GDP,

outsourcing remains low in comparison to the rest of the world. Employing data for all U.S. 165

manufacturing, the authors discovered that services outsourcing is positively correlated with U.S. labor

productivity.

Bhagwati, Panagariya, and Srinivasan: In The Muddles over Outsourcing (2004), the authors

assert that the public debate over offshore outsourcing of services suffers from two sets of serious

“muddles.” The first muddle concerns how outsourcing is defined. The authors concluded that the 166

popular press, politicians, and some economists have misdefined outsourcing to include functions such as

the offshore purchases of manufactured components, on-line purchasing, direct foreign investment, and 

in some cases all imports. Bhagwati defined outsourcing as the “arm’s length or long-distance purchases

of services abroad that does not require geographical proximity of the buyer and the seller, but not 167

necessarily, via electronic mediums such as the telephone, fax and Internet.”

168

The second muddle concerns economists that accept Bhagwati’s definition of outsourcing, but

hesitate to treat trade in services with the same analytical tools as trade in goods. The authors present

three alternative models to illustrate the effects of outsourcing on national output, wages, and distribution
 The first model, a standard theoretical model, uses one (aggregate) final good and two factors of 169

production (labor and capital). The introduction of outsourcing leads to clear welfare gains that could benefit society

as a whole. The second model, a specific factors model, contains 2 goods and 2 factors and demonstrates that the

country still gains overall due to outsourcing. In the short run, IC is fixed and labor is mobile domestically. The third

model, another standard theoretical model, has three goods and two factors. Because non-tradable goods can be

imported at lower prices in this model it produces welfare gain and both factors are better off. The authors assert that

the third model refutes the belief that outsourcing will harm real wages of particular factors of production.

Vivek Agrawal and Diana Farrell, “Who wins in offshoring,” The McKinsey Quarterly, Special Edition:

170

Global Directions.

Panagariya indicates that this results from confusion between absolute and comparative advantage.

171

Arvind Panagariya, Outsourcing: Why is it Good for the United States, Columbia University, 2004.

Forrester revised its prediction to 3.4 million jobs by 2015. Forrester claimed that there would be an 172

average annual outflow of 300,000 jobs from the United States due to offshore outsourcing.

Forrester based its findings on examining 9 occupational categories in 2002. It estimates suggested that 173

the number of jobs affected outsourcing would only be 0.53 percent of the 56.7 million positions contained in the 9

categories. Forrester stated that the U.S. economy destroyed approximately 30 million jobs in 2003 and that its

estimate represents almost 1 percent of the number of jobs destroyed by the economy in 2002. Citing Mann (2003),

the authors point out that the number of jobs in the 9 occupational categories was either stable or rising, suggesting

that outsourcing had a very modest impact on employment. 

Nasscom maintained that more than 70 percent of these workers were employed by companies supplying

174

services to the United States.

46

of income. The study argued that outsourcing is strictly a trade phenomenon and is subject to the same 169

theoretical approach as trade in goods. The authors also assert that outsourcing should have the same

positive effect on jobs and wages as trade in goods.

The authors stated that the impact of the outsourcing of Mode 1 services on the U.S. labor market

is relatively minor. Bhagwati et al acknowledged that some low-skilled workers will be temporarily

dislocated due to outsourcing, but maintain that the U.S. economy will gain from cheaper imports and

stronger export markets. The authors asserted that analysts must recognize that not all jobs can be sent

offshore. Approximately 70 percent of all jobs in the United States require physical proximity and

therefore cannot be outsourced offshore (Agrawal and Farrell, 2003). Arvind Panagariya (2004) argued 170

that some critics who contend that nearly all U.S. service jobs will be exported to low-cost countries

commit both empirical and theoretical mistakes. The empirical error made is the assumption that all

services jobs can be computerized or digitized and the theoretical mistake concerns the fact that “large

volumes of imports are not possible without large volumes of exports unless foreigners are willing to

provide us with services for free.”

171

In spite of the rhetoric surrounding the outsourcing of Mode 1 services, Bhagwati et al assert that

the actual effect on U.S. jobs is relatively small and will remain so through the end of 2010. They

predicted that the effect will remain modest when considering either the buyer’s or seller’s side of the

transaction. On the buyers-side, Forrester Research’s 2002 study is the most commonly cited estimate of

job losses due to offshore outsourcing of services. Forrester predicted that approximately 3.3 million U.S.

services jobs would be lost to low-cost countries by 2015. Bhagwati et al maintain that Forrester 172

neglected to focus solely on Mode 1 services or explain if the U.S. economy would have 3.3 million

fewer jobs than it would otherwise have had because of outsourcing. They maintained that this

assumption contradicted the belief that “over the long term the number of jobs is determined by the

natural rate of unemployment.” On the seller side, India’s National Association of Software and

173

Services Companies (Nasscom) contended that employment in India’s call centers grew from 353,000 in

March 2000 to 505,000 in March 2003.174
Catherine L. Mann, “Globalization of IT Services and White Collar Jobs: The Next Wave of 175

Productivity Growth,” International Economic Policy Briefs, No. PB03-11, Dec. 2003.

Mann also examined changes in the number of workers across 22 BLS occupational codes from BLS’ 176

annual Occupational Employment Survey for 1999 through October 2003. She demonstrated that employment in

these categories peaked at 129.7 million in 2000 from 127.3 million in 1999. Mann asserted that employment in

those areas considered at risk to IT outsourcing were, for the most part, either stable or recovering. Mann showed

that employment in 16 of the occupational areas actually exceeded 1999's totals and in those areas where

employment lagged, only the architecture and engineering category contained professions affiliated with offshore

outsourcing of services. Those occupational categories exceeding 1999 employment total included computer and

mathematical, legal, health care support, business and financial operations, and sales and related. 

47

Mann: In Globalization of IT Services and White Collar Jobs: The Next Wave of Productivity

Growth (2003), Mann argued that the globalization of IT hardware production should serve as a model 175

for the development of the U.S. IT services and software sectors. Mann expects that the outsourcing of

services will also bring lower prices for U.S. consumers, more affordable business-specific packages,

facilitate high-value and higher paid technical job-creation, and lead to higher U.S. worker productivity.

Mann acknowledged that although technological change is the primary driver behind declines in IT

prices, she suggested that outsourcing in the 1990s also helped facilitate a price reduction in IT hardware.

Mann’s study concluded that the outsourcing of U.S. computer chip manufacturing in the 1990s led to a

price decline of between 10 to 30 percent on chips and a decline in prices of personal computers. This

reduction stimulated demand for U.S. IT hardware and software that increased from 58 to 69 percent of

IT spending during 1999-2001. Mann estimated that with outsourcing, U.S. GDP gained $230 billion in

additional growth between 1999 and 2002. Mann also predicted that offshoring of services would yield a

similar increase in GDP and suggested that annual average real U.S. GDP growth would have been 0.3

percentage points lower without offshore outsourcing of IT hardware. 

Mann cited reports by Forrester Research and other management consulting firms as examples of

projections that millions of U.S. services jobs will be sent offshore in the near future. Mann believed that

Forrester and the other consulting firms fail to consider that the U.S. economy will generate stronger

demand for IT proficient workers due to outsourcing and the infusion of IT in new sectors of the

economy. She also stated that many opponents of outsourcing use 2000, the peak of the dot.comtechnology revolution, as the starting point to beginning their analysis. This position fails to factor in

such issues as the business cycle, a trend decline in manufacturing employment, the overvaluation of the

U.S. dollar, and the dot.com bust. This position also fails to acknowledge that official trade data under

represents services trade since services are often bundled into goods. Mann also pointed out that the

United States is internationally competitive in the global market for services and that its trade surplus in

services increased from $42 billion in 2002 to nearly $50 billion in the first quarter of 2003.

Although Mann acknowledged that “there are no publically available data on jobs lost to workers

in foreign economies” she cites the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupation Outlook Handbook that

projected that the number of IT related occupations will grow 43 percent by 2010. The Handbook also

predicted that occupations likely to exhibit the greatest growth between 2002-2012 included several IT

related categories (computer support specialists, computer software application engineers, network

administrators, desktop publishers, computer and information systems managers). The OOH also forecast

that 50 percent of the top 20 occupations will demand IT skills and that 13 percent of the total number of

jobs created by 2010 in the economy will be IT-related.176

Bardhan and Kroll: The authors believe that observing the effects of outsourcing on the U.S.

manufacturing industry during 1987-1997 should be a useful tool for appraising how outsourcing will
Ashok Deo Bardhan and Cynthia A. Kroll, The New Wave of Outsourcing, Fisher Center for Real Estate 177

and Urban Economics, University of California, Berkeley, Research Report, paper 1103, Fall 2003. 

Sectors included: Non-manufacturing sectors: software publishers (except Internet); Internet publishing

178

and broadcasting; telecommunications; ISPS, search portals, and data processing (data processing and related

services); accounting, bookkeeping, and payroll (payroll services); computer systems design and related; business

support services (telephone call centers - telephone answering services, telemarketing bureaus). Manufacturing

sectors: computer and electronic products (semiconductor and electronic, components).

 Ashok Deo Bardhan and Cynthia A. Kroll, The New Wave of Outsourcing, Fisher Center for Real Estate 179

and Urban Economics, University of California, Berkeley, Research Report, paper 1103, Fall 2003. 

 Ibid. 180

Garner (2004) pointed out that “the true difference in labor costs per unit of output may not be as large

181

as these wage figures suggest, however, because U.S. workers have high average levels of productivity. High average

productivity reflects our advanced technology and large amounts of human and physical capital per worker.” C. Alan

Garner, “Offshoring in the Service Sector: Economic Impact and Policy Issues,” Economic Review, Third Quarter

2004, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

48

affect the services sector. Bardhan and Kroll identified considerable economic research related to the 177

outsourcing of manufacturing and concluded that this research is applicable to the outsourcing of

business services. The outsourcing of business services primarily affects white-collar workers unlike

manufacturing outsourcing that impacted principally blue-collar workers. 

The second half of the 1990s was a period characterized by high employment, tight U.S. labor

markets, and tremendous growth in the IT software and services markets. The authors contend that most

of the jobs gained in the developing world were spinoffs from a tight U.S. labor market rather than the

pursuit of lower labor costs. The authors suggested that the subsequent economic downturn and the

jobless recovery gave rise to legitimate concern that the outsourcing of business services involved the

transfer of U.S. jobs offshore. 

Analyzing data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the authors presented employment statistics

for those sectors of the economy most commonly associated with outsourcing. The authors found that 178

between the first quarter of 2001 and the second quarter of 2003 employment in the identified sectors

declined by 15.5 percent nationally and by 21 percent for California, the home of Silicon Valley. This

represented a net job loss of more than 1 million positions in the United States and approximately

200,000 in California, in the identified sectors. Although most of the jobs lost can be attributed to the

dot.com bust, the technology downturn, and the cyclical downturn in the U.S. economy, outsourcing also

played a significant role in job loss.

The authors asserted that Forrester’s claim that 3.4 million jobs will be lost to offshore

outsourcing by 2012 now seems conservative. The authors estimated the outer limits of potential job loss

in these occupations due to offshore outsourcing. They concluded that 14 million positions in 2001 were

vulnerable to outsourcing, representing approximately 11 percent of the total U.S. workforce (table

15).179

The data revealed that 218,000 at-risk jobs were lost between 2000 and 2002 and the authors

believe that, as of June 2003, between 25,000 and 30,000 IT positions had been outsourced to India.

These estimates were based on Occupational Employment Statistics developed by the Bureau of Labor

Statistics. The majority of these at risk occupations are back office jobs that represented approximately

11 percent of the total U.S. non-farm workforce in 2001. The primary driver of outsourcing of business 180

services is the gap between salaries in the United States and those in the developing world. Kroll also 181

contended that offshore outsourcing could endanger U.S. ascendancy in emerging fields like genetics and

nanotechnology. She estimates that about 1 in 9 jobs nationwide and 1 in 6 in California’s Silicon Valley

could be vulnerable. Bardhan and Kroll hypothesize that workers in surviving outsourced job categories
J. Bradford Jensen and Lori G. Kletzer, Tradable Services: Understanding the Scope and Impact of 182

Services Offshoring, prepared for the Brookings Trade Forum 2005, Offshoring White-Collar Work - the Issues and

the Implications, May 12-13, 2005.

Lori G. Kletzer,“Globalization and job loss, from manufacturing to services,” Economic Perspectives,

183

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, 2Q/2005. 

49

could confront a ‘downward adjustment of salary and wages’ making them globally competitive once

again. They projected that high-tech cities like New York, Boston, San Jose, and San Francisco will be

the biggest losers.

Table 15: Estimated U.S. jobs vulnerable to offshoring (2001)

Occupation U.S. employment (thousands) Average annual salary

Office support 8,637,900 $29,791

Computer operators 177,990 $30,780

Data entry keyers 405,000 $22,740

Business and financial support 2,153,480 $52,559

Computer and mathematical professions 2,825,870 $60,350

Paralegals and legal assistants 183,550 $39,220

Diagnostic support services 183,550 $39,220

Medical transcriptionists 94,090 $27,020

Total 14,063,130 $39,631

Source: Ashok Deo Bardhan and Cynthia Kroll, The New Wave of Outsourcing. 

Jensen and Kletzer: The authors found no clear understanding of the relationship between job

generation and the globalization of business services. Jensen and Kletzer asserted that outsourcing has 182

changed significantly in recent years. Prior to 2001, manufacturing workers accounted for more than 50

percent of all displaced workers, but following the dot.com bust non-manufacturing occupations

accounted for nearly 70 percent of all U.S. displaced workers. According to Kletzer, offshore outsourcing

of business services emerged as a public policy and trade issue in 2001 (Kletzer 2005). Jensen and

183

Kletzer argue that there is “little clear understanding of the size and extent of services global

outsourcing,” or how it will affect the U.S. labor market or the U.S. economy as a whole.

The authors cited a number of estimates of job loss prepared by management consultant firms,

particularly Forrester Research’s prediction that 3.3 million workers would be displaced by offshore

outsourcing. They concluded that the size and scope of offshore outsourcing are still unclear and that it is

reasonable to believe that offshoring will have a significant impact on certain sectors of the economy. 

Tradable Services: Understanding the Scope and Impact of Services Offshoring (2005),

represents the initial attempt by Jensen and Kletzer to estimate the size and scope of services outsourcing

and to identify the impact it may have on labor markets. They acknowledged that finding detailed data on

the scope of offshore outsourcing is difficult, but they sought to examine changes in services trade at the

industry and occupational levels. Based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data, Jensen and Kletzer subdivide

industries by their degree of geographic concentration to provide estimates of which occupational
Industries were divided into three classes and ranked according to Gini Coefficient in descending order, 

184

based on least to greatest geographically concentrated. Jensen and Kletzer found those occupational categories with

the highest Gini coefficient included computer-mathematical; architecture-engineering; and legal, life, physical, and

social science occupations. For those industries identified by Dossani and Kenny (2004) as at-risk occupations, the

authors found the following Gini coefficients: paralegals and legal assistants at 0.18, computer science engineers at

0.38, operations research analysts at 0.33, database administrators at 0.28, network systems administrators at 0.27,

computer control programmers at 0.25, network and computer systems analysts at 0.20, and computer support

specialists at 0.18. The paper also illustrated that there was a tremendous wage-earning differential between the

services and manufacturing sectors. The authors proposed that those employed in the services sector earned much

higher annual incomes due to their higher education attainment and because they are more likely to be male. 

50

categories were internationally tradeable. The study’s preliminary results demonstrate workers

184

employed in tradable industries are likely to be higher skilled and have higher incomes than workers

employed in manufacturing or in non-tradable industries. Jensen and Kletzer propose that trade is

services is consistent with U.S. comparative advantage and that “as technological and organizational

change increase the potential for trade in services, economic activity within the U.S. will shift to

activities consistent with U.S. comparative advantage.”

The author also assert that U.S. workers and firms are likely to benefit from any future

liberalization in international services trade. Jensen and Keltzer also demonstrated that workers in

tradable service industries possess different demographic characteristics than their counterparts in nontradable industries. The rate at which workers were laid off in the services industry workers was lower

than for manufacturing and “re-employment rates [were] higher and earning losses [were] lower for

displaced services workers than for displaced manufacturing workers.”

Conclusion

Outsourcing of business process services is here to stay, but the degree to which it will either

positively or negatively affect the U.S. economy is yet to be determined. U.S. corporations continue to

outsource many of their routine labor-intensive business process services tasks to developing countries

that offer significant cost savings and quality advantages. Labor arbitrage continues to be the driving

force behind offshoring as it has allowed companies to dramatically lower their labor costs. In theory,

these savings can be passed on in the form of lower prices to consumers and higher dividends to

shareholders. Offshore outsourcing also allows American companies to focus on their core competencies

while improving quality and productivity.

India is only one of a number of low-cost countries that U.S. companies are using to lower their

costs and gain greater efficiencies. At present, India dominates global business process outsourcing

because of its competitive advantage in the areas of linguistic skills, institutional comparability,

competitively priced telecommunications services, and its ability to offer quality services at 40 percent to

60 percent of the manpower cost in the United States. However, India continues to be weak in

infrastructure and its business process outsourcing sector continues to suffer from attrition and

absenteeism problems, rising costs, and security concerns (IP piracy). Consequently, there are a number

of countries such as China, the Philippines, and Malaysia that are waiting to challenge India’s

supremacy. 

Anxiety in the U.S. jobs market stemming from outsourcing and potential job loss continues to

be an important issue among white-collar IT and services sector workers and in Congress. There is clear

evidence that IT and services sector jobs have been sent offshore, but most of these jobs have been

concentrated in lower skilled occupations. Nevertheless, there is no hard evidence to support the notion

that globalization or offshoring will transform the United States into a third world nation or that it will
Erika Kinetz, “Crunching the numbers for a true picture of outsourcing,” International Herald Tribune, 185

June 18, 2005, found at http://www.int.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/article/2005/06/17/yourmoney/mlabor.php,

retrieved July 13, 2005.

Edward Luce, “Booming Bangalore will be backing Bush to win again,” Financial Times, Sept. 22, 186

2004, p. 14.

Charles L. Schultze, Offshoring, Import Competition, and the Jobless Recovery, The Brookings

187

Institution, Policy Brief #136, Aug. 2004.

51

exert downward pressure on U.S. wages or broaden the income distribution gap. Much of this debate has

been made with “incomplete data, anecdotal, politically motivated, or data that has been otherwise

tweaked.” Even the most generous estimates of jobs lost to outsourcing account for less than two 185

percent of total U.S. non-farm employment. Nevertheless, Forrester Research and other consulting firms

contend that trade in services could generate net benefits to the U.S. economy including lower prices to

consumers, higher dividends to shareholders, growing exports, greater job security and higher wages for

the remaining workers, and greater overall economic efficiencies.

Bhagwati asserted that, “there is an emotion on outsourcing that runs through talk radio and

popular media in the U.S. that is quite out of proportion to the number of jobs that have migrated. One

reason is that it is easier to see the losses, whereas the gains to the U.S. economy, which clearly

outweighs the losses, are less easily visible. The number of back-office jobs that have moved to India is a

tiny portion of the overall U.S. labor market. Fewer than 350,000 Indians work in call centers, up from

about 250,000. Last year the U.S. economy shed and then created 30 million jobs.” Likewise Charles 186

Schultz ( 2004) stated in Offshoring, Import Competition, and the Jobless Recovery that “it is clear that

offshoring has had a relatively modest impact on unemployment when compared to the other economic

factors that create and destroy jobs week by week in the U.S. economy. In the short run, an increase in

offshoring reduced U.S. job growth. But in the long run it improves the standard of living, increases real

wages, and increases the country’s economic growth.”187

Most economists also believe that the U.S. economy will continue to generate high-value added

jobs in the future and outsourcing of business process services jobs will continue to be confined

primarily to low-wage, low-value added jobs many of which could be eliminated in the near-term through

technological innovation. They also believe that international trade, and outsourcing in particular, will

result in significant economic gains for the U.S. economy. 
APPENDIX 
Martin N. Baily and Diana Farrell, “Exploding the myths of offshoring,” McKinsey Global Institute 188

Quarterly, June 2004. 

Economist caught in US jobs storm,” BBC News, Feb. 13, 2004, found at 189

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapas/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3485025.stm, retrieved May 4,

2005.

John Cassidy, “Winners and Losers,” The New Yorker, Aug. 2, 2004, p. 26-30. 190

 Archana Ravinder and Antara Nanda Mondal, “Outsourcing is here to stay,” Indian Post New Services.

191

Mankiw acknowledged that outsourcing could cause some dislocation, but said that they are a natural 192

byproduct of trade. Peter Brownfeld, “White House Under Fire for Outsourcing Proposal,” Fox News, Feb. 13,

2004, found at http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,111287,00.html, retrieved Jan. 18, 2005.

“Offshoring of high-tech jobs defended,” Outsourcing-Russia.com, found at http://www.outsourcing193

russsia.com/kb/docs/outsourcing/o12014-01.html?print, retrieved Nov. 2, 2004. 

Robert Kennedy, “Loss of jobs overseas opens debate on whether it’s a problem,” Detroit News, Feb. 1, 194

2004, p. 17A.

 Computer Systems Policy Project. 195

A-2

Selected commentary on the United States, India, and outsourcing 

Arguments for BPO: Outsourcing advocates have accused various media personalities,

academics, and politicians of using outsourcing as a convenient scapegoat for the alleged U.S. “jobless”

recovery. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, “trade in services like all international trade,

benefits the United States as a whole by making the economic pie bigger and raising the standard of

living.” Proponents also accuse critics of unnecessarily arousing the fears of highly paid white-collar 188

workers that their jobs are in imminent jeopardy of going offshore. They liken this fear to what occurred

in the early 1960s when President Kennedy “predicted that factory automation and the introduction of

computers would increase unemployment and exacerbate poverty” and during the 1991 recession when

Presidential candidate Ross Perot reported hearing a “giant sucking sound” from Mexico “of jobs being

lured to Mexico as a result of NAFTA.”

Gregory Mankiw, Chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors, stated in the 2004

Economic Report of the President that “when a good or service is produced at lower costs in another

country, it makes sense to import it rather than to produce it domestically. This allows the United States

to devote its resources to more productive purposes,” and that “outsourcing is just a new way of doing 189

international trade. More things are tradeable that were tradable in the past and that’s a good thing.”190

Shallen Gupta, President of Minneapolis-based Renoids, “offshore BPO is part of a bigger economic

force called globalization. Similar resistance in the U.S. was seen, when the emigration of manufacturing

jobs to Asia first began, but today it’s an accepted way of doing business. The same will prove true with

offshore outsourcing.” Also, the “offshoring of U.S. service jobs is only the latest manifestation of the 191

gains from trade that economists talk about.” Carly Fiorina, former Chief Executive Officer for 192

Hewlett Packard, said that “there is no job that is America’s God-given right anymore,” and Bruce 193

Mehlman, Executive Director of the Computer Systems Policy Project asserted that, “there is no type of

job that is immune from global competition.”

Advocates of outsourcing believe that it will benefit the U.S. economy in terms of lower prices,

higher profit margins, growing exports, and greater job security and higher wages for remaining

workers. “Much of the substantial revenue earned abroad cycles back to Americans in the form of jobs 194

and wages for workers, investment in research and development, profits for shareholders and taxes for

the U.S. economy.” Lawrence Klein, Nobel laureate and Professor Emeritus at the University of 195

Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business acknowledges that some U.S. white-collar services workers
“But economists say “outsourcing” jobs overseas is a minor problem that Kerry’s plan wouldn’t do 196

much to fix,” found at http://www.factcheck.org/article225,html, retrieved May 23, 2005.

 Remarks by Governor Ben S. Bernanke, Trade in Goods, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, 197

March 30, 2004, found at http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2004/20040330/default.htm, retrieved

May 23, 2005. 

 Steven R. Weisman, “Powell Reassures India on Technology Jobs but Presses for Open Markets,” The 198

New York Times, March 17, 2004.

“India insists outsourcing good for the U.S.,” The Washington Times, March 13, 2004. 

199

“India tech boom,” Nasscom, Jan. 21, 2004, found at 200

http:www.nasscom.org/articlesprint.asp?art_id=2348, retrieved Dec. 23, 2004. 

 Others critics of outsourcing include former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle who said, “if this is 201

the administration’s position, I think they owe an apology to every worker in America.” Senator Daschle refereed to

Gregory Mankiw’s statements as “Alice in Wonderland economics” and that “ exporting jobs isn’t an accident - it’s

administration policy. The administration is putting corporate profits ahead of American jobs. And the exporting of

jobs is hurting millions of Americans and countless communities across the country.” Also, Senator Hillary Rodham

Clinton introduced a non-binding resolution saying the administration’s policies “have failed to address or

exacerbated the loss of manufacturing jobs in the United States. She indicated problems with the annual Economic

Report to the President that because it failed “to capture the human toll behind the recent rise in offshore

outsourcing. As we have seen from recent announcements, virtually every job category up and down the pay scale is

now at risk: software engineers, machinists, newspaper reporters, accountants, and radiologists. We can’t be a

A-3

will lose their jobs but insists that the “overall impact on the economy will be favorable.” He believes

this is “because companies are paying lower costs, they have more money for investment which leads to

an increased demand for labor. This does not indicate a 1-to-1 ration of job gains to those lost; however,

the overall economy will benefit from offshoring.” Likewise, former Federal Reserve Governor Ben 196

Bernanke states that, “to say that the U.S. economy benefits from trade is not to say that every individual

American worker or family benefits, or that the structural changes induced by trade are not disruptive.”197

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell stated that “outsourcing is a natural effect of the global

economic system and the rise of the Internet and broadband communications. You’re not going to

eliminate outsourcing; but at the same time, when you outsource jobs it becomes a political issue in

anybody’s country. Outsourcing means a loss of U.S. jobs, so that means that these jobs have to be

replaced.” Even former Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee declared that “as economists 198

around the world have been pointing out, outsourcing makes businesses more competitive; increases their

exports and their profits; and places more investment surpluses in their hands, which can be deployed to

make more jobs.” Lastly, Davashish Ghosh, Chief Operating officer of Indian BPO Wipro Spectra 199

mind, “even if the U.S. economy improves, offshore outsourcing to India will only increase. Thirty years

ago when manufacturing jobs started moving out of the United States, there was anger, but that did not

stop the outsourcing of those jobs. The BPO sector is going through the same thing now and this is a

trend that is here to stay.”200

Arguments against BPO: Critics contend that offshore outsourcing will destroy the American

middle class and seriously undermine America’s economic future. BPO opponents fear that millions of

U.S. workers will become jobless from competition in the services sector and accuse U.S. corporations

of exporting high paying white-collar service jobs overseas at the expense of the American worker.

Others fear that outsourcing will exert downward pressure on U.S. wages and that the income distribution

gap will broaden as more middle-class jobs go offshore.

Former Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry accused the current administration of

“wanting to export more of our jobs overseas,” and he labeled CEOs of companies that outsourced U.S.

jobs overseas as ‘traitors’ and ‘Benedict Arnolds.’ Senator Kerry accused the administration of 201
healthy economy unless we have more jobs here in America.” Congressman Manzullo declared that “thousands of

white-collar jobs are going overseas, chasing the cheap dollar in India, China, Malaysia, and the Philippines. That’s

the reason for [congressional hearings] because of the incontrovertible evidence that the U.S. is on the verge of

adopting the economies of third-world nations.” Peter Brownfeld, “White House Under Fire for Outsourcing

Proposal,” Fox News, Feb. 13, 2004, found at

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,111287,00.html, retrieved Jan. 18, 2005. “Bush Adviser

Supports Outsourcing,” Fox News, Feb. 12, 2004, found at

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,111225,00.html, retrieved Jan. 18, 2005. Alan Fram,

“Hastert lashes aide on exporting jobs,” Associated Press, Feb. 11, 2004, found at

http://www.boston.com/news/nation./Washington/articles/2004/02/11/hastert_lashes_aide_on_exporting_jobs?mode,

retrieved Jan. 18, 2005. Hiring offshore workers good for US market, says tech executives,” ComputerWeekly.com,

Jan. 8, 2004, found at http://www.computerweekly.com/print/articleprinterpage.asp?liartid=127425&liflavor,

retrieved Nov. 2, 2004. 

“US politician Kerry calls outsourcing firms traitors,” The Economic Times, Feb. 6, 2004, found at 202

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-478554,prtpage-1.cms, retrieved Jan. 18, 2005.

“Democrats hopefuls, lawmakers denounce outsourcing,” The Indian Express, Feb. 7, 2004, found at 203

http://www.indianexpress.com/print.php?content_id=40640, retrieved Feb. 15, 2005.

 Kathy Kiely, “As jobs go overseas, a city struggles to reinvent itself,” USA Today, Apr. 1, 2004, found 204

at http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-03-21-outsourcing-usa_x.htm, retrieved Nov. 2, 2004.

Sridhar Sourirajan, Globalization and Offshore Outsourcing A Tale of Two Realities, Duke University, 205

Apr. 12, 2004.

Ashu Kumar, “US IT Cos join fight against BPO backlash,” ExpressIndia, May 19, 2005, found at 206

http://expressindia.com/print.php?newsid=27731, retrieved May 18, 2005.

“Hiring offshore workers good for U.S. market, says tech executives,” ComputerWeekly.com, Jan. 8, 207

2004, found at http://www.computerweekly.com/itdirector/rpint.htm?type=story&at=39117659-3902467, retrieved

Nov. 2, 2004.

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“rewarding Benedict Arnold CEOs who move profits and jobs overseas.” He subsequently introduced a

202

bill in Congress that “would require call center operators to disclose their physical locations to

consumers with the aim of discouraging the practice.” Likewise, another critic who believes that

203

offshoring is a grave danger to the U.S. economy, said, “now the services sector is also starting to be hit

by offshore outsourcing while American companies may be improving their individual competitiveness

for the short term, but may be collectively undermining America’s and their own competitiveness for the

long haul. Bit by bit, we’re not just moving jobs offshore, but we may be transporting big blocks of our

innovation infrastructure, the talent and technology that fueled our record setting growth and prosperity

in the 1990s.”

204

Offshoring opponents also point out that Indian BPO companies have begun the move up the

value-added chain and are now competing for “solidly middle-class” occupations and consequently could

undermine the American middle class. Opponents believe that “high paying, high value creative jobs that

were thought to be impregnable to globalization’s pressure points are finding ways to breach the border,

as developing countries have geared up with the necessary skill upgrades and vastly improved technology

and communications infrastructure.”205

According to the Computer Systems Policy Project, “Americans who think that foreign workers

are no match for U.S. workers in knowledge, skills and creativity are mistaken. Asian nations have

invested heavily and it shows.” “Thousands of white-collar jobs are going overseas, chasing the cheap 206

dollar in India, China, Malaysia, and the Philippines. That’s the reason for [congressional hearings],

because of the incontrovertible evidence that the U.S. is on the verge of adopting the economics of thirdworld nations,” said Congressman Dan Manzullo (R-IL), Chair of the House Committee on Small

Business.207
“USA, Inc. fighting hard to prevent BPO ban,” The Economic Times, March 1, 2004, found at 208

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-530223,prtpage-1.cms, retrieved March 1, 2004.

Ed Frauenheim, “Statistician defends his outsourcing figures,” CNET News, Aug. 10, 2004, found at 209

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/print/?type=story&AT+=39163028-39020484t-20000021c, retrieved Apr. 12, 2005. 

 “Outsourcing of high-skilled jobs to India on rise, says ILO report,” The Indian Express, Dec. 12, 2004, 210

found at http://www.indianexpress.com/print.php?content_id=60750, retrieved Dec. 13, 2004.

“Outsourcing of high-tech jobs defended,” Outsourcing-Russia.com, found at http://www.outsourcing211

russia.com/kb/docs/outsourcing/o12014-01.html?print, retrieved Nov. 2, 2004. 

Suzanne King, “Technology jobs heading overseas as companies look to cut costs,” The Kansas City 212

Star, Oct. 21, 2003, found at http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/business/7056515.htm?template=content

modules, retrieved Feb. 15, 2005. 

 Ibid. 213

In a letter to Speaker Hastert, Gregory Mankiw wrote that “my lack of clarity left the wrong impression

214

that I praised the loss of U.S. jobs. Creating an environment for robust job creation is the paramount goal of the

President. It is regrettable whenever anyone leaves a job. Some would respond to the recent challenges facing the

economy by erecting trade barriers.” “When a good or service is produced more cheaply abroad, it makes more sense

to import it than to make or provide it domestically. History teaches that a retreat to economic isolationism would

mean lower living standards for American workers and their families.” “Bush Economist: Outsourcing Remark

Misunderstood,” Associated Press, Feb. 19, 2004. TV Parasuram, “Bush aid under fire for supporting BPO,” rediff,

Feb. 12, 2004, found at http://www.rediff.com/cms/print.jsp?docpath=/money/2004/feb/12bpo1.htm, retrieved May

4, 2005.

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U.S. labor unions also expressed their strongly held opposition to offshore outsourcing urging

U.S. corporations to keep white-collar IT and service sector jobs in the United States. Officials of the 208

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers maintain that offshoring, “poses a venous serious longterm challenge to the nation’s leadership in technology and innovation, its economic prosperity, and its

military and homeland security.” The International Labor Organization’s (ILO) World Employment 209

Report 2004-05 reported that by “moving production to countries where wages, benefits, and the cost of

living are much lower some of the jobs that were supposed to be the nation’s bridge to clean, brighter,

better-paid future are starting to migrate too.”210

Union critics like Marcus Courtney, President of the Washington Alliance of Technology

Workers, said that BPO “is not a recipe for job creation in this country. This is a recipe for corporate

greed. They’re lining up at the public trough to slash their labor costs.” Similarly, Linda Guyer, who 211

locally represents IBM workers in New York, said “people are beginning to stand up against corporations

because they saw that outsourcing was going to go well beyond the technology sector. It’s going to affect

financial jobs. Accounting, it’s going to affect the entire U.S. middle class.” Marcus Courtney also 212

asserted that “we’ve gone from a new economy to a fear economy. In the new economy, people were

talking about unprecedented jobs and opportunities. In the fear economy, job security is the No. 1

issue.”

213

Not only Democrats, but several influential Republicans such as Senator Craig Thomas (R-WY),

Senator George Voinovich (R-OH), and House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) have expressed

reservations about BPO. Speaker Hastert warned that “outsourcing can be a problem for American

workers and the American economy.” He also said, “I understand that Mr. Mankiw is a brilliant

economic theorist, but his theory fails a basic test of real economics. An economy suffers when jobs

disappear.”214

The continued uncertainty in the U.S. job market is prompting some to ask if the United States

can lose these jobs and still prosper. Ron Hira of the Rochester Institute of Technology stated that

“unlike in previous years when international competition adversely affected American corporations, this
 Ronil Hira, Outsourcing America: What’s Behind Our National Crisis and How We Can Reclaim 215

American Jobs, presentation given at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, June 7, 2005. 

Kimberly Blanton, “An honest, disturbing look at outsourcing,” Boston Globe, July 10, 2005, found at 216

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/07/01/an_honest_disturbing_look_at_outsourcing..., retrieved Sept.

23, 2005.

 Book Launch — Outsourcing America: What’s Behind Our National Crisis and How We Can Reclaim 217

American Jobs, a discussion by Ronil Hira at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, June 7, 2005. 

“RIT Professor Ron Hira Publishes Book on Offshore Outsourcing,” RIT News Release, Apr. 26, 2005, 218

found at http://www.rit.edu/~930www/proj/news/viewstory.php3?id=1542, retrieved Sept. 23, 2005.

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time it is the workers who are left exposed while corporations benefit from offshoring.” In Outsourcing

215

America What’s Behind Our National Crisis and How We Can Reclaim American Jobs (2005), Hira and

Hira believe that the “jobless” recovery and the extended economic recession can be linked to the

offshore outsourcing of IT and business services occupations to low-cost countries. Ronil Hira

216

contends that unlike previous eras when international competition challenged U.S. corporations, that

offshoring of business services has benefitted U.S. corporations at the expense of U.S. workers. Hira

217

contends that as U.S. corporations become global entities, U.S. workers are no longer stake holders and

will be treated no differently than other company workers located offshore in countries like India and

China. The implication of this, says Hira, is that U.S. multinationals have fewer ties with their U.S.

workers and what is best for the country.

According to the Hiras, U.S. companies are re-balancing their work forces in favor of the

offshoring share because they can obtain better margins. The Hiras point out that some argue that

offshoring is being driven by the need to cut costs, but they assert that the companies outsourcing are

among America’s most profitable. The Hiras contend that U.S. corporations have no incentive of keeping

U.S. workers employed since the CEO’s primary incentive is to improve profitability and the bottom line.

Hira believes that the United States is at the beginning of white-collar outsourcing in 2005 and

maintained that the use of outsourcing is just beginning to accelerate. Venture capital firms are forcing

their start-up companies to have offshoring plans before they get their next round of funding. Companies

are benefitting from offshoring by acting rationally, but workers are the ones that are bearing the brunt of

the negative side. 

Hira emphasized that the outsourcing and its effects have not been quantitatively studied and that

official U.S. data regarding offshore outsourcing of business services is inadequate. They cited a U.S.

Government Accountability Office (GAO) study that found that official U.S. government statistics does

not specifically identify offshoring activities. Also cited was a Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Mass Layoffs

Survey for the first quarter of 2004 that revealed that only two percent of layoffs were due to offshoring.

The Hiras are skeptical of BLS results noting that the survey only captures layoffs involving at least 50

employees and that employers can name a variety of other causes for the layoffs. Ronil Hira believes that

because of the controversy surrounding offshore outsourcing many U.S. companies are reluctant to

divulge their hiring and layoff practices. He also believes that offshoring will lead to downward pressure

on wages, will dissuade U.S. students from considering computer science degrees, and will heighten the

feeling of uncertainty among many professionals.218

There are no villains, according to Ronil Hira, since CEO’s are doing what they are paid to do

and workers are also acting rationally by saying this is a bad deal for us because re-employment isn’t

good right now. The most frequently cited policy proposals to assist dislocated IT and service sector

workers are extending Trade Adjustment Assistance benefits to services workers, establishing a

Presidential Commission, wage insurance and pension portability, increasing funding for physical

science and engineering R&D, assisting U.S. engineers and computer specialists in acquiring skill sets

that their counterparts offshore lack. Hira also questioned the current assumptions underlying trade
Paul A. Samuelson, Where Ricardo and Mill Rebut and Confirm Arguments of Mainstream Economists 219

Supporting Globalization, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 18, No. 3, Summer 2004, pp. 135-146.

A-7

policy and referred to a recent article by Paul Samuelson that illustrated how the technological rise of one

trading partner could erode the gains for the other.219
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