When Back-Office Work Moves Overseas, What Happens to Workers?
It may be good for business owners to shift back-office operations overseas, but is it good for workers? Advocates of the off-shore strategy say yes. Contact centers and transaction-processing facilities in places like India and Mexico can provide good jobs to poorer countries, they argue, adding that U.S. employees who lose work may eventually find higher-skilled positions. Critics, though, don t buy that version of globalization. They say workers in the developing world can be exploited, and U.S. clerks, accountants and call center workers are by no means guaranteed a decent-paying replacement job. Especially given the slow pace of economic growth compared to a few years ago, moving back-office work overseas will hurt the most vulnerable Americans, suggests Jeff Faux, economist with the Economic Policy Institute. “It s going to have an impact on opportunities for people to rise up the economic ladder in the U.S.,” he says. The debate isn t exactly new. It follows disputes over the lo
