Be Very Scared: Remote Work Could Cost Americans Their Jobs Within Decade, Experts Say
Remote work may be a blessing for Americans who enjoy not having to commute to the office, but experts are warning that workers should be careful what they wish for because companies could easily hire someone overseas to do the same job for much less money.
High-paid tech workers could find themselves out of a job within a decade if companies continue to outsource those positions overseas, the experts said.
“If people that code for Google and Facebook were able to live wherever in the US they wanted and [work] for a year and a half without ever going to the office, it seems very, very likely that a lot of companies will be rethinking this longer-term and outsourcing those kinds of jobs that didn’t use to be outsourced,” MIT assistant professor Anna Stansbury told Fortune.
The Post has sought comments from Google and Facebook.
Stansbury said that back-end engineers and others could be found for less money in places like India. Other experts agree.
“If you can do your job from home, be scared. Be very scared,” Richard Baldwin, an economics professor at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, told the European-based Center for Economic Policy Research.
“Because somebody in India or wherever is willing to do it for much less.”
Last year, Baldwin and his research partner, Jonathan Dingel, authored a paper titled “Telemigration and Development: On the Offshoreability of Teleworkable Jobs.”
Baldwin and Dingel categorize jobs into four groups — “highly offshore able,” “offshore able,” “hard to offshore” and “non-offshore able.”
A job is considered “highly offshore able” if an employee doesn’t need to be physically near a US work location and if they also don’t need to be close to a group or unit in their department.
Many US-based companies have long outsourced their call centers to countries like India, where English-speaking workers are available to provide around-the-clock service.
A recent analysis by the Labor Department found that the highest-paying jobs such as software engineers and internet publishing are easier to do remotely, while low-paying work such as retail and food service are harder to do remotely, according to the Washington Post.
Nonetheless, fast-food workers may have a reason to be apprehensive.
Freshii, a fast-food chain headquartered in Toronto, has already started to outsource cashier jobs to workers based in places like Nicaragua, according to National Public Radio.
A customer reported to NPR that as they were heading to pay for their meal at a Toronto location, they noticed that instead of a live cashier at the checkout counter, they were guided to a tablet-size screen.
Companies in tech as well as the food service sector have already started offshoring jobs. Getty ImagesThe screen then showed the face of a woman who was working as a virtual cashier, though while the customer was in Toronto, the employee was processing the order thousands of miles away from her home country of Nicaragua, according to NPR.
The Post has sought comment from Freshii.
Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic more than two and a half years ago, more Americans are working remotely.
A survey conducted by McKinsey found that 58% of Americans reported working from home at least one day per week, while 35% were afforded the option to work from home five days a week at some point during the pandemic.
When given the opportunity, 87% of workers said they take advantage of the chance to work from home, according to the survey.
Indian IT Industry: Miracle Of Brilliance
Three decades ago, it was impossible to imagine that Indians would ever rule the IT industry and that of the top 10 IT companies four would turn out to be Indian. No one ever thought that Indian companies would be providing jobs to those in America and that Indians would constitute a significant number of IT professionals in the US. It’s heartening to see that Indians hold top positions in the top IT companies in the USA as well as other countries in the world.
Thanks to Indian talent, the Indian IT industry which contributed roughly 0.4% to the country’s GDP in 1991 now contributes 8% and more. One can figure out the dominance of the IT industry by the fact that over 12% of all the recognized startups worldwide are Indian. Indian software export began years ago in 1974 and now India is the back office for the entire world.
Liberalization Gained Impetus
The IT sector in India was born in the 1970s, but liberalization provided it with the much-needed thrust. Every day a new success story is being written by the Indian IT sector. In early 2022, the Indian IT sector showed an amazing growth of 15.5% which is almost double the speed of the country’s economy. New technologies such as Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence,
and Blockchain are revolutionizing pharma, travel, banking, agriculture, education, aviation, and other sectors as well. Today, if you look around, everyone has an Aadhaar which again is a great example of success and hard work. Internet connections and smartphones are so common today and sending & receiving money via UPI fund transfer is super easy.
Women Gaining Power and Dominance
Compared to any other sector, IT employs more female staff than ever. Roughly 20 lakh of the 50 lakh IT employees is women. There are some 18 lakh female employees in the IT sector. It will not be an overstatement if we call the IT sector, the most employable industry for females. In the past few years, over 44% of new recruits have been females.
Knowledge Helps in Achieving Growth
What comes to the mind when someone abroad mentions India? It is nothing else but software and business process outsourcing. But did we reach here just out of the blue? No, it has been a long journey of perseverance and hard work.
Thanks to our parents who have been contributing massively to this incredible growth. Ask any Indian parent what they want their child to become one day and you would most likely hear a “doctor” or an “engineer”. This is the foundation stone of the success story that the modern generation is writing.
Our parents’ love for math, science, and the English language empowered the modern generation to rule the world of IT. Good knowledge of science and math ensures growth in software development.
Inundated by Startups
As recognized by the DPIIT, there are over 75,000 startups in the country. Of all the recognized startups, about 12% cater to IT, whereas 9% work in Life Sciences & Healthcare, about 7% in Education, 5% in Agriculture, and 5% in Commercial Services and Business.
A lot of startups have done well and so many unicorns emerge in the past few years. They are making a huge contribution to the country’s growth besides creating opportunities for employment. Fresh innovations are taking place almost every day and they are making Indian businesses so recognizable across the globe. They have proved that if there are 100s of problems then Indians have crores of solutions.
Growth Model in the Next 10 Years
Global delivery model: Indian companies focus on international business and, for this reason; they are all expanding their delivery centers across the globe. The focus is international business. Top companies happily hire more IT professionals due to the heavy demand for their work in international markets.
Data annotation industry and labeling hub: The data annotation market in India was somewhere around $250 million in 2020. Thanks to the increase in the demand for AI (Artificial Intelligence), this sector may become worth $7 billion by the year 2030. Data analytics, cloud computing, and social media have been providing great opportunities for growth for travel, aviation, and IT companies.
Attracting foreign investment: The computer hardware and software sector has seen much growth in FDI inflow to India. If we look at the current demand, FDI in this sector may grow further in the years to come.
Digital trust is important: Data is the need of the hour and there are countless possibilities in this segment. A lot of research is being done on Big Data in India. It is important to build strong digital trust. Also, an industry with great expectations from people has a lot more to prove.
Indian IT Sector – Challenges
Semiconductor Technology: Semiconductor technology could be the next big revolution in the country. Semiconductor-integrated chips are made using silicon mixed with sand. A big dream can come true if the IT sector succeeds in making chips in India and bringing the chip design capability to fabrication.
A personalized experience is extremely important: Personalized experience is highly important for users today. All companies are working towards delivering an outstanding personal experience. There is a massive need for continuous improvement in this as well.
Protection against cyber-attack
India began working on IT in the 80s, decades after gaining independence in 1947. On the other hand, western countries had already started working on IT much before that. Dotcom gained impetus in the 80s and that was the beginning of the amazing success story the Indian IT industry has been writing. Digital technology is helping connect people anywhere and at any time. From helping simplify routine lives to office work, governance, and beyond, technology is helping businesses grow phenomenally and quickly.
However, cybercrimes remain a challenge for most businesses and IT experts even now who are almost always looking for ways to ensure a safe and secure browsing and internet experience for all users. There have been 13 lakh cyber-attacks or attempts in India in 2020. Cybercrime was on the rise when the world was combating the deadly pandemic. The challenge of cyber security is huge and the IT sector needs to work hard to strengthen it.
MEA Issues Advisory Against Fraud IT Jobs Abroad
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on 24 September issued an advisory warning against "fake job rackets", which fundamentally target the skilled youth in the IT industry.
Per the advisory, victims are deceived in the disguise of lucrative data entry jobs in Thailand through social media advertisements and by Dubai and India-based agents.
The victims are also apparently taken across the border illegally, mostly into Myanmar where they are held captive and forced to work under "harsh conditions," the advisory read.
The Ministry said that Indian nationals are advised not to get entrapped in such fake job offers being floated through social media platforms or other sources.
"Indian nationals are advised to check the credentials of foreign employers through concerned missions abroad and the background of recruiting agents as well as any company before accepting any job offer, this will prevent them from getting entrapped in such fake job offers, the advisory added.
The ministry also noted that "dubious" IT firms are being involved in call-center scams, cryptocurrency frauds, and operating fake rackets by offering employment to win over the skilled youth for jobs such as digital sales and marketing executives in Thailand.
Through its missions in Bangkok and Myanmar, such instances have been lately reported under the Ministry’s notice.
The advisory stated that the target groups communicated the above to the skilled youth through fake social media advertisements with the involvement of Dubai and India-based agents.