computer
Programmers
Software
engineers
customer
Service
Systems
analysts
Sales
managers
General
managers
marketing
computer
Programmer
Software
engineers
customer
Service
Systems
analysts
Sales
managers
General
managers marketing
types of
Worker Being
offshored
31.4%
31.4%
24.9% 15.5%
7.6%
6.1%
5.5%
n=458
table 2. correlations between occupation and reasons for offshoring.
occupation
Computer
programmer
Software developer
Systems analyst
customer service
Graphic designer
General manager
Sales manager
Marketing personnel
Hr personnel
total (Percentage)
Reason for offshoring
cost Savings Skills Service Quality expansion
other
total
. 24**
. 22**
. 15**
. 14**
.04
.01
–.06
–.08
.07
63. 7
. 14**
. 14**
. 13**
.05
.08
. 15**
. 10*
. 17**
.03
26. 9
–.07
–.01
. 14**
. 11*
. 13**
. 12**
. 15**
. 22**
. 10*
13. 9
.03
.03
.03
.00
.08
. 26**
. 29**
. 27**
. 15**
19. 1
–.09 144
–. 13** 144
–. 11* 71
–. 16** 114
–. 11* 35
–.09 28
–.08 35
–. 11* 25
–. 12** 31
18. 7
reported correlations are partial correlations between whether or not a firm offshores a position and
the reasons it gives for firms report for offshoring, controlling for firm size and industry, significant at
the 5% level or greater, significant at the 1% level or greater. For all correlations, n=458.
cess to skills. These correlations suggest that offshoring may have more
direct implications for U.S.-based IT
workers than the offshoring of other
types of workers.
Table 3 further supports these
ideas, showing firms’ offshoring des-
tinations, as well as correlations be-
tween destination and type of work
being offshored. A test of the hypoth-
esis that occupation and offshoring
destination are independent is reject-
ed at the p<.01 level (X2(171)=298.2),
indicating that particular types of
work are best suited for offshoring
only to certain countries. IT work and
customer-service work appear to be
much more concentrated than sales,
management, and marketing, which
are spread over a larger number of
countries, consistent with the idea
that jobs involving personally deliv-
ered services are often co-located with
overseas customers. In 2007, India
was the most popular destination for
offshoring any type of work, especially
for IT work, and, of all the countries
in our sample, offshoring to India was
most associated with cost savings.
