Big US Companies: Hire Abroad, Fire At Home. - BusinessInsider

[WillyT]

Big US Companies: Hire Abroad, Fire At Home.
John Ellis | BusinessInsider
Apr. 19, 2011, 2:51 PM

<snip>

The benefits of globalization have been much-hyped by Wall Street, Washington think-tanks, newspaper columnists and the like. The reality is somewhat more...complex. David Wessel of The Wall Street Journal reports:

TextU.S. multinational corporations, the big brand-name companies that employ a fifth of all American workers, have been hiring abroad while cutting back at home, sharpening the debate over globalization's effect on the U.S. economy.

The companies cut their work forces in the U.S. by 2.9 million during the 2000s while increasing employment overseas by 2.4 million, new data from the U.S. Commerce Department show. That's a big switch from the 1990s, when they added jobs everywhere: 4.4 million in the U.S. and 2.7 million abroad.

In all, U.S. multinationals employed 21.1 million people at home in 2009 and 10.3 million elsewhere, including increasing numbers of higher-skilled foreign workers.

Neither political party wants to talk about this, since both parties get major institutional fund-raising support from US-based multi-nationals, their PACs, their managements and employees. So the issue is unlikely to get much "play" in the 2012 election. But if the employment trend (hire abroad, fire at home) continues, it will become a major political issue.

<snip>

Link: http://www.businessinsider.com/big-2011-4

:mad:

:argh:

:kick:

[Tom Rinaldo]

1. Yep, there are our "job creators at work"

Give them more tax cuts and they will create even more jobs.

[ixion]

2. Talk about stating the obvious

I've got news for the "Business Insider:" they've been doing it for years.

[aquart]

3. Well, I got to mention outsourcing to Hershey, Inc. today.

The people who moved chocolate production to Mexico but still offer tours of Hershey, PA? They are taking calls of protest against ABC/Disney's move to cancel its daytime soaps. When Hoover decided to drop its ABC advertising to protest the cancellations, Hoover achieved instant product loyalty and many new Facebook friends. So Hershey opened its hotline to test the waters. Also Target, Excedrin, and I forget who else.

I told the operator at Hershey that I stopped buying her company's products when it outsourced to Mexico but I would be happy to buy its cocoa for my scratch chocolate pudding again if Hershey would save the over 600 jobs being destroyed in the soap opera industry. Every one of those jobs is American. And union (although there may be a few outliers).

Operator wanted to know my age and how I learned about the outsourcing.

[KansDem]

4. Pat Schroeder of Colorado was right...

It's not "trickle down"--it's "trickle on."

We've been trickled on for some 30 years.

Whoever thought that, given massive tax cuts, the plutocrats would have the best interests of this national at heart...

[L0oniX]

5. ...and of course they receive tax breaks and subsidies.

[WinkyDink]

6. The plain-as-day is now news?

[shanti]

7. "...it WILL become a political issue"???

have they been on mars?

[Bozita]

8. They forgot the 3rd leg of the stool - pay no taxes

[undeterred]

9. Stop buying those fancy "American Girl" dolls.

Mattel has outsourced much of the work to India. They should call them Indian Girl.

[JDPriestly]

10. And a big opportunity for the first politician who dares to offer a solution

to the problem.