With business — even small business — going global, we’re all forced to adapt to the changes. If you’re an employee, you may wonder: could your job be in danger? Having worked in the software industry for a LONG time, I often entertained this thought. You may worry that you could be made redundant or could end up getting laid off because of the outsourcing trend. Sure, the possibility is quite real for some jobs, but it depends on how specialized or how high up the chain you are with regards to the type of work you do. The more highly skilled you are, the harder it will be to find your position eliminated and outsourced to another place.
Having said that, here is an interesting list I garnered from the Resume Bear site:
Top 10 Jobs Targeted For Outsourcing
1. Computer Programmers
2. Pharmacy Technicians
3. Parts Salespersons
4. Telephone Operators
5. Billing and posting clerks and machine operators
6. Computer Operators
7. Data Entry Keyers
8. Word Processors and Typists
9. Tax Preparers
10. Medical TranscriptionistsTop 10 Jobs Least Likely To Be Outsourced (Safe Jobs)
1. Financial Managers
2. Training and Development Managers
3. Training and Development Specialists
4. Meeting and Convention Planners
5. Loan Counselors
6. Health and Safety Engineers, except Mining Safety Engineers and Inspectors
7. Mining and Geological Engineers, including Mining Safety Engineers
8. Food Scientists and Technologists
9. Sociologists
10. Urban and Regional PlannersTop 10 Jobs That May or May Not Be Outsourced (Jobs in the Middle)
1. Logisticians
2. Database Administrators
3. Operations Research Analysts
4. Aerospace Engineers
5. Computer Hardware Engineers
6. Marine Engineers and Naval Architects
7. Microbiologists
8. Chemists
9. Historians
10. Film and Video Editors
Why Is Your Job Getting Outsourced?
The Resume Bear also mentions the top reasons for jobs getting eliminated here. If you find these to be true about your own job, then it may do you good to work on additional skills, which really is the only way you can insure yourself from extended job loss.
Reasons for your company to outsource your job:
- Your job can be automated. It’s easy to have a machine or process to take your place.
- Your job is location independent and does not require person-specific skills.
- Your job can be done elsewhere at a much lower cost.
You can protect yourself by hedging your income, either by making sure you stay invaluable to your employer (keep your skills up to date!) or by striking it out on your own by developing multiple streams of income. With the Internet culture alive and well, outsourcing looks to be a growing trend. As a small business owner who practically lives online, I’ve come to embrace the “location independent” lifestyle and have also used it to my advantage.
Announcements
What’s going on around the personal finance blogosphere lately? Apparently, quite a lot! Some things I’d like to mention:
The Financial Blogger has launched a new site called DoNotWait.com, which is a new retirement planning site. You can join their giveaway and win an iPad, among many other prizes! So make sure to check them out here.
Tom from Canadian Finance Blog has a great new resource for fans and readers of personal finance sites and blogs. You can check out Money Index, which gives you a summary of the latest posts from some choice money bloggers. You’ll find me in the Personal Finance section!
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
There was a story some time ago that some of the McDonald’s take out window order takers are now getting outsourced to other countries. It is quite interesting what the technology can make happen.
I think that once they are done outsourcing jobs, they are going to start bringing jobs back here and giving them to computers.
Congratulations on being part of the Money Index!
Any job that can be done 1. over the phone or 2. via computer can be outsourced to another country. It’s that simple. This is not to say that manufacturing jobs can’t be outsourced, because obviously they can, but anything digital can be outsourced with very minimal costs or disruption to the consumer.
Sorry to burst any bubbles, but the trend is for jobs higher up the scale to begin moving offshore. In addition, better hope no one relaxes the Visa rules, or the current trend of bringing in foriegn nationals to fill mid and upper level positions is only going to get worse.
Perhaps its time we started actually looking at the fallacies of Fair Trade and began demanding that foriegn providers begin playing by the same rules? When a country like India can exploit a segment of its population to produce services and goods at slave labor wages, the effect on markets as a whole are predictable.
Doesn’t it feel good to know that all your training and education just got devalued by up to 80% because India is allowed to flood markets with sub par quality and unqualified personnel at ridiculously low rates which domestic companies are happy to choose instead of you, simply because they are dirt cheap?
Those lists are pretty interesting. It’s scary how so many of our domestic jobs are slowly but surely being outsourced. With the dawn of the technological age, it seems like just about ANYTHING can be outsourced. Obviously there are some big exceptions, but so much can be done. And monitoring work progress abroad has become much easier with all of these new programs being developed that help to track.
This is a huge topic for and know about this all too well, having been an employee in the technology services industry right out of college. I recently did some research and wrote an article about a topic that blew my mind and I think should raise up many red flags amongst young and middle aged professionals because if this continues it has the potential to change the standards of living for many Americans. What can be worse than outsourcing? What I discovered was that there is a growing trend among big companies to start hiring only Contingent (Contract) workers. How is this worse than outsourcing? Well if you think about it, when your are a contract worker, typically you are paid much less, employer’s DON’T have to pay you for vacation time off, sick days, or personal days off. Additionally, contract workers do not share in company Health Care benefits, 401K plans or stock option/performance based bonus plans. This means the American worker will have to work much MORE for much LESS take home pay and now be forced to provide all of these services for himself/herself and their family. So much for employees living the American Dream.
Great post! Very useful information. Thanks!
I work in the IT industry and I have to agree with #1, Computer Programmers. I would refer to them as developers and they constantly get laid off as projects complete and funding gets cut.
Soon there will be no jobs for anyone to do here in the U.S.A. except for the folks that hand out the government checks in one form or other.