What to do if your job is outsourced to California or China

If you took all the economists in America and laid them end to end from Los Angeles to New York City, they would each point in a different direction.

I heard an economist say that every time a Walmart opens in a community, that the number of jobs increases and the average pay for each job increases.  He also said that outsourcing jobs to China increases high paying jobs and wages in the USA.  The real problem is that whatever happens in the long run, in the short run people get hurt.

Here in Harrisburg, PA some high paying jobs were outsourced to California, where it costs even more to get work done.  How can that be economical?

The economist worries me much less than the jobs moving to California. Why would someone move jobs to a high cost location?  I can understand being cheap and moving them to China or Walmart.

What really happened is that companies were merging in the software field.  The one in Harrisburg, PA was not competing effectively.  Their product was looking old, slow and not very flexible.  The CA company was winning the sales game, but there were a lot of customers who wouldn’t move off the old PA platform.  The CA company bought the PA company to get the customers.  The owners of the PA company were glad they didn’t have to run their company into the ground.  The customers were pleased because they were getting a better support organization and the chance to move to the new platform. Everyone won except the workers in PA. They had to find new jobs.

They did find new jobs.  It is 12 years later. Everyone I knew in that company is now working on newer technology and earning more.

There is nothing in business as intensely fertile as an American company getting trounced by another American company. In the dying company everyone looks at their contribution to their own demise.  They then use what they learned to compete against higher paid workers.  New skills are learned.  New jobs are created.

In every dying company there are some people who re-train themselves early on and leave for better jobs.  When the old company dies, the rest of the workers then re-train or retire.  The people who re-train themselves early are better off.  They are earning more money much earlier.  They are also prepared to step away from their job into a better paying one if their job is outsourced to China or Walmart.

Doesn’t it make sense for you to constantly be re-training yourself?  Be prepared for the changes in the economy.  Someone is going to earn more and be more secure.  Shouldn’t it be you?

Something to do today