Offshoring: Linking Key Concepts to Available Data

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Offshoring Linking Key Concepts to Available Data

• Loren Yager, Ph.D.
• Director, International Affairs and Trade
• U.S. GAO

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Congressional Interest GAO response

• Congressional interest
• initial request on IT workers
• later requests on all potential occupations
• GAO response
• first job for specific requesters (GAO-04-932)
• additional jobs under GAO RD authority

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GAO Work on Offshoring

• Key objectives of the September report
• define offshoring
• examine available data
• Future GAO work on policy tradeoffs
• procurement
• IT infrastructure
• workforce
• trade

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A Framework for DiscussionLinking Key Concepts
to Available Data
U.S. foreign direct investment
Imports of services
U.S. employment displaced
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Narrow Definition of OffshoringDisplacement
and Imports
U.S. foreign direct investment
Imports of services
Firms import services from foreign suppliers,
displacing U.S. employment
Firms import services from their foreign
affiliates, displacing U.S. employment
U.S. employment displaced
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Broad Definition of OffshoringOther
Combinations
U.S. foreign affiliates produce services for
foreign markets
Firmsimport services from their foreign
affiliates
Firms import services from foreign suppliers
U.S. foreign affiliates displace U.S. exports or
services in foreign markets
U.S. Employment displaced for reasons other than
offshoring
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Available Data Imports of Services
U.S. foreign direct investment
Imports of services
U.S. employment displaced
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U.S. Imports of ServicesCategories of Private
Services
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Imports of ServicesTrends in Selected BPT
Categories
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Imports of ServicesBPT Imports from India,
1999-2003
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Imports of ServicesSource Countries of BPT
Imports, 2003
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Available DataU.S. Foreign Direct Investment
U.S. Foreign Direct Investment
Imports of Services
U.S. employment displaced
U.S. employment displaced
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U.S. Foreign Direct Investment Selected
Destinations, 2003
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U.S. Foreign Direct InvestmentShare of
Subsidiary Sales Back to U.S.
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Available DataU.S. Employment Displaced
U.S. Foreign Direct Investment
Imports of Services
U.S. employment displaced
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U.S. Employment DisplacedMass Layoff Survey,
2003
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U.S. Employment DisplacedCurrent Employment
Statistics
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Summary

• Some similarity with prior developments in the
  economy
• current statistics dont capture trends
• efforts made to better define and measure
• Future progress on understanding the trends
• improved collection
• modeling and estimation