In The News

Only 3 Percent of What You Buy Is Made in China, But It's the Most Important 3 Percent

Greg Lindsay August 25, 2011
For four decades, corporations have outsourced manufacturing operations to Asia, reducing costs. Shifting manufacturing off-shore eliminated jobs and also “sacrificed the know-how to think of new ways of manufacturing goods,” explains Greg Lindsay for Fast Company. In all, services represent two thirds of the US economy. Manufacturing’s role is small: San Francisco Federal Reserve economists...

Top Indian Technology Firms TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Aegis and Others in US Are Going for Local Hiring

Shruti Sabharwal August 22, 2011
Indian IT firms are seeking to employ more Americans as a result of the high US unemployment rate and criticism of outsourcing. “In response, IT firms are now pulling out all the stops to be seen as job creators with a stake in local economies,” writes Shruti Sabharwal for the Economic Times. Sensitive to charges of stealing jobs, the Indian firms have joined a number of US initiatives: Wipro...

The Trouble With Outsourcing

August 1, 2011
Outsourcing has been tried in every field – from manufacturing to security – relying on specialized companies to provide efficient service or parts at a low price. “There are signs that outsourcing often goes wrong, and that companies are rethinking their approach to it,” reports this article in the Economist. The mishaps behind the manufacture of Boeing’s Dreamliner, with supply-chain delays and...

Employment Versus Debt

Nayan Chanda July 26, 2011
Confronting an ongoing economic crisis, US politicians have assigned greater priority to the nation’s large deficit rather than an unemployment rate officially listed at 9.2 percent. Also overlooked is a report from the US Department of Labor that 3 million job openings go unfilled. It’s a head-scratching moment, suggests Nayan Chanda, YaleGlobal editor in his regular column for Businessworld,...

Clinton Links US Diplomacy to Jobs

Daniel Lippman July 15, 2011
The US Congress is on a cost-cutting drive, and foreign aid is in line for the chopping block, a move deeply worrying to the leader of American diplomacy. Investing in diplomacy builds connections, opens new markets for US companies and creates jobs for Americans, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton contended in a speech to the Global Leadership Coalition, a group of businesses and nonprofits...

More Foreign Interns Seek Work in China

Xu Junqian and Duan Yan June 28, 2011
Adventurous graduates, facing a troubled job market in the US, turn to internships and work for free in exchange for experience. Spurred by publicity about the 2008 Beijing Olympics and then the global financial crisis, increasing numbers head to China, reports China Daily. The international program AIESEC, based in the Netherlands, arranges internships in 107 nations; China is now the most...

Asia Matters for America

Satu Limaye June 28, 2011
US workers and politicians rail about jobs lost to Asia. But Asian-US interactions in education, immigration, investment, tourism and trade produce US jobs and income, explains Satu Limaye, director of the East-West Center in Washington. He created Asia Matters for America, an online map that relies on US government data to show exports, as well as their growth and percentage of total trade,...