Here’s some more evidence that the U.S. economy has a bright outlook in the long term: The Wall Street Journal reports that jobs that once moved to Asia are now returning to the United States.
While the outsourcing of back-office and call center work to Asia is likely to continue, many companies are looking to source more of this work in cheaper, rural and small city environments in the United States.
Costs in these areas are significantly lower than in high-cost urban centers like New York, and American locales don’t have the political risks of some foreign countries. At the same time, U.S. workers in many cases are actually more productive than their competitors overseas:
“Companies are not satisfied with the quality overseas, and they can’t afford to have things reworked two or three times,” especially in technology development, Mr. Schindler said. After an overseas outsourcer stalled the upgrade of a bank’s software for two years, the bank hired CGI’s IT developers to finish the project at one of its U.S. locations. The job was done within weeks, he said.
The doom and gloom about America’s long-term prospects misses some important truths. An energy boom is going to reshape our future and give us something close to true energy independence. Meanwhile, manufacturing and back-office work is returning to our shores. Our flexible economic and social structures are allowing us to better adapt to changing conditions than our major rivals in Europe and other parts of the world.
America’s task today is to lay the foundations for a new era of greatness, not to hedge against decline. The future has its risks, but never in its history has the United States been better poised for decades of transformative growth. If we have the courage and the wisdom to take full advantage of the opportunities before us, coming generations of Americans will enjoy prosperity greater than anything the world has ever seen — and the United States will be able to do its part to help that prosperity spread around the world.
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