Thursday, February 22, 2007

Study Names Orange County Vulnerable To Offshoring

A new study released by the Brookings Institution this month says that Orange County is among several metropolitan areas vulnerable to offshore outsourcing. The study, entitled "The Implications of Service Offshoring for Metropolitan Economies", found that at least 17 percent of computer programming, software engineering, and data entry jobs are likely to be offshored between 2004 and 2015 in areas like Boston, San Francisco, and San Jose, and also named Orange County as being vulnerable to offshoring. However, the study did not find other areas in Southern California more vulnerable than the average loss for the rest of the nation. The report recommended that to reduce the vulnerability of the U.S. to offshoring, that federal, state, and local leaders should work to pursue policies that boost productivity and innovation, assist workers who are harmed by offshoring, and modernize approaches to economic and workforce development.