Commentary

Jobs going to India ? or Indiana?

The bulk of outsourced jobs never leave U.S. shores, the government said on Thursday in a new report suggesting concerns over American workers losing jobs to cheaper foreign labor may be exaggerated. Nine percent of non-seasonal U.S. layoffs in the first quarter were due to outsourcing, but less than a third of the work was sent overseas, the U.S. Labor Department said in releasing new figures on mass layoffs and outsourcing. “In more than seven out of 10 cases, the work activities were reassigned to places elsewhere in the U.S.,” the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its report on mass layoffs for the January-to-March period. (Read on here.) OK, at least we know what the real problem is–interstate outsourcing. Maybe we should lay off the Indians for a while and concentrate on all those other job-stealing states right here in America. Of course, then some might get upset with intercity outsourcing. Some may say that it’s OK if an American “steals” another American’s job because at least his taxes will go to the same big pot in D.C. But it seems like someone who just lost his job might not be so optimistic. After all, if you’re job’s gone, it’s goneâ�?��??whether it moves across town, across the nation or across the world.