What’s the latest on the economic impact of outsourcing?

downloadOutsourcing 
According to Moretti, economic studies have generally found that outsourcing is a net good for the U.S. economy.
According to Moretti, many of the outsourced services are complements and not substitutes for the services that we use locally in the U.S.
In addition to citing several economic studies on the topic, Moretti uses the case study of Oracle.  According to Moretti, In 2000 Oracle had 22,008 U.S. workers and 20,919 workers abroad. In 2014, as the company grew the number of jobs outsourced also grew.. By 2014, Oracle had 40,000 in the U.S. and 60,000 abroad.
According to Moretti, this was a net gain for the U.S. even though clearly outsourcing has increased for Oracle.   Many of the U.S. jobs created by Oracle jobs are high paying jobs.  Also, he further shoes that many of the jobs, like routine computer software programmers, were jobs that helped U.S. workers do their jobs better as opposed to replacing the work of native U.S. workers. Further the multiplier effect resulted in many support jobs being created in the U.S.

Why is the innovation job sector so important? Because 5 > 1.6 (Moretti)

Why it is import?
Moretti argues that innovation jobs, like software jobs, make intensive use of human capital and human ingenuity are big economic drivers.
Based on his calculations from 320 Metro areas and approximately 11 million employee and previous studies, Moretti estimates that one innovation job creates five supporting jobs.
In contrast, Moretti estimates that traditional jobs create about 1.6 for every job. This is based on 320 metro areas and 11 million employees.

What is the innovation sector? Thoughts on Moretti’s book ‘The New Geography of Jobs’

Enrico Moretti’s book “‘The New Geography of Jobs” discusses how certain jobs, which he refers to innovation jobs, and where they are located are important factors for economic development.  Using data and economic research as support, he provides numerous arguments that suggest that these types of jobs are big economic drivers and dictate the economic fate of many communities.

So what are innovation jobs?  Moretti defines innovation jobs as jobs that make intensive use of human capital and human ingenuity. These jobs includes the obvious like high tech software jobs but also less obvious like jobs in the movie industry that make use of high tech and personal creativity.

Throughout the book Moretti argues that the typical innovation job is worth more substantially more than traditional jobs. That is one reason why he believes we should not be concerned about the loss in the traditional types of jobs.

Job Openings in Texas for Petroleum Engineers, Technicians, and Personnel Decreased from April 2014 to May 2014

petroleum engineerThe number of job openings in Texas for “petroleum engineers” and “geological and petroleum technicians” decreased from 672 in April 2014 to 640 in May 2014, while the searcher-to-job opening ratio increased from 0.74 to 0.90 in the same span.

The number of job openings in Texas for “derrick operators” and “roustabouts” decreased from 294 in April 2014 to 283 in May 2014, while the searcher-to-job opening ratio increased from 2.54 to 2.63 in the same span.

petro_engineer_2014_05roustabout_2014_05

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image source: http://wonderfulengineering.com/what-is-petroleum-engineering/.

Useful data in analyzing FLSA and wage and hour cases involving truck drivers

Useful data for analyzing FLSA and wage and hour allegations in cases involving truck drivers. (Continued from previous post)
1. Waiting Time.  The Bill of Lading (BOL) for a particular load.  The BOL typically shows the time the driver arrived at the site and what time he/she started loading or unloading.
2. Pre- and Post-Trip Work.   Driver’s Logs typically show the time of arrival at a truck yard and the time the driver left the yard to head to the first job site as well as the time left and returning from subsequent jobs.
3. Pay records

Allegations in a truck driver FLSA and wage and hour case

(Continued from previous blog post)
1. Waiting Time.  The drivers are seeking to be paid for all time spent waiting at a load or delivery site.
2. Pre- and Post-Trip Work. Time spent time at the beginning and end of each shift doing pre- and post-trip inspections and other duties in the yard was allegedly not paid.
3. Driving Empty.  The drivers were allegedly not paid hourly for driving empty trucks to and from job sites.

Texas Job Openings by Major Occupational Group

Texas May 2014

Total number of job openings and median searcher-to-job ratio across all MSAs (metropolitan statistical areas) for each major occupational group in Texas in May 2014.

occupation openings s2jratio
Management, business, and financial occupations 53053 0.8
Professional and related occupations 77452 0.8
Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations 16964 1.14
Office and administrative support occupations 51305 1.15
Service occupations 61732 1.51
Sales and related occupations 27126 1.79
Transportation and material moving occupations 18312 1.99
Production occupations 20093 2.72
Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations 872 3.61
Construction and extraction occupations 15892 4.46