No big impact in US due to outsourcing, study says

American employers are not benefitting much and damage to US workers in terms of wages as well as jobs is far less, according to a research study, which focused on outsourcing on technology and other jobs.

The study pointed out that some foreign companies have set up shop in the US thus contributing to job growth as they continue to believe that America is the best place for research and development activities.

The study was published in The Dallas Morning News, which quoted Diana Farrell, director of the McKinsey Global Institute, as saying, ''the infrastructure, the market size, the risk profile, access to talent --these are very rational reasons why we have such a high incidence of companies from all over the world placing their R&D facilities in the United States.'' The study pointed out that Texas Instruments (TI) is building a semiconductor fabrication plant at Richards, near Dallas in Texas itself-and not abroad.

''We were not going after cheap labor. The reasons we chose to stay in the Dallas area are really tied to cutting-edge research,'' Paula Collins, vice president of TI, was quoted by the study as saying.

Meanwhile, the Conference Board said that in the US there has been only a minor impact of jobs that have moved overseas.

The New York research group noted that till 2003 only 1.5 million jobs in the service sector had migrated from America. The number is expected to rise to 4.1 million within three years (still too small to make an impact on the American job market), the group said.