This finding put to rest the myth that the only jobs that are offshorable are low-paying jobs that require very little skill. The general rule of thinking was that only jobs that US citizens do not find desirable are the jobs that are given to workers in other countries. Now the case can be made that the American middle-class jobs are at high risk of being given to other nations. Even high-paying and high-skill positions such as architectural designers are vulnerable to being given to people who reside in other countries. The only jobs that seem to be safe from this are jobs that require that you personally deliver the services such as surgeons, photographers, care givers, and janitors.
This finding also stirred debate, as it seemed to contradict what many Americans thought about free-trade benefiting the economy of the United States. Many people asked if the United States lost nearly one-third of its jobs could it survive without suffering an economic collapse. Critics dispel the findings and say that this study was way too subjective to be taken seriously.
China's and India's growing share of the world exports is a major development in worldwide economics and has a big impact on production, employment, and wages in developed countries around the world. It is becoming more and more evident that outsourcing jobs to other countries could have great impact on wages, employment, and the job security of workers in the US and other advanced economies as well.
It is hard to say how many jobs in the US and other advanced economies have been lost to offshoring, but it is estimated that it is less than 1 percent of all jobs in the United States have fallen victim. It is also evident that outsourcing is steadily on the rise.
The number of jobs that could be vulnerable to offshoring is large, as Blinder has pointed out. His high numbers have actually been cited in other similar studies and research. The question that is now being asked is if offshoring will affect the wages any differently than did earlier acts of globalization. It is thought that outsourcing will indeed be a big deal if it reduces the wages of medium- and high-skilled workers, most of whom were never before subject to competition on the international level. Low-skill job wages such as that earned by gardeners and garbage collectors are not likely to be affected by outsourcing internationally.
So if you thought your job of an architectural designer was safe from the possibility of being given to someone on another continent, it would be wise to think again.
