July 4, 2005
Written by C.N.
The Decline of Tech Jobs
CNN has an article that describes how many young college graduates who had planned on getting computer programming and other high tech jobs in the Information Technology industry have had second thoughts. Instead, many are now entering marketing, finance, sales, business consulting and other fields that are seen as more insulated from the threat of outsourcing to Asian countries:
As tens of thousands of engineering jobs migrate to developing countries, many new entrants into the U.S. work force see info tech jobs as monotonous, uncreative and easily farmed out — the equivalent of 1980s manufacturing jobs. . . . Career experts say the decline of traditional tech jobs for U.S. workers isn’t likely to reverse anytime soon.
The U.S. software industry lost 16 percent of its jobs from March 2001 to March 2004, the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute found. [By 2010], worldwide demand for technology developers — a job category ranging from programmers people who maintain everything from mainframes to employee laptops — is forecast to shrink by 30 percent. . . .
Thousands of U.S. companies have opened branches or hired contractors in India, China and Russia, transforming a cost-saving trick into a long-term business strategy. Offshoring may be a main factor in eroding enthusiasm for engineering careers among American students, creating a vast supply of low-wage labor in eastern Europe and Asia and driving down worldwide wages.
Although the article doesn’t really acknowledge it, a disproportionate share of these college students who used to dream of high tech jobs are Asian Americans. That brings us to a very interesting paradox — Asian American workers feeling threatened and potentially hostile toward Asian workers because these Asian workers are likely to be the beneficiaries of outsourcing at the expense of Asian American (and other American) workers.
How will this development affect racial/ethnic solidarity among Asian Americans and Asians? Stay tuned . . .
Author Citation
Copyright © 2001- by C.N. Le. Some rights reserved. 
Suggested reference: Le, C.N. . "The Decline of Tech Jobs" Asian-Nation: The Landscape of Asian America. <https://www.asian-nation.org/headlines/2005/07/the-decline-of-tech-jobs/> ().
Short URL: https://www.asian-nation.org/headlines/?p=101
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