Outsourcing High-Tech Jobs to Rural America
NPR:
n the last decade, an increasing number of American companies have been radically cutting costs by sending manufacturing and customer service jobs overseas, where labor costs can be dramatically lower. Some of those jobs were the mainstay of rural U.S. communities, where low rent and wages first attracted outsourcing work away from higher-priced cities.Now there’s an attempt to bring outsourcing jobs back to smaller cities and towns. NPR’s Howard Berkes recently visited the Arkansas town of Magnolia — home to about 10,000 people, near the southwest corner of the state — where some say there aren’t enough jobs in local timber, oil, farming and manufacturing industries to keep local kids at home.
M Bahnmiller on March 4th, 2005 7:28 am
It is a smart for a company to look to rural areas to expand it’s production. My company plus another manufacturer employ 5,000 out of a total population of 16,000 in a county in northern Minnesota. We have expanded production to other small towns in various states. The wages required to hire staff is lower but so is the cost of living. We have been successful in finding the right balance.
There is often a problem in recruiting new personnel, especially professionals and managers, when the local talent is tapped out. Most of the small towns have little in the way of amenities to attract families or even singles. For example we have limited shopping and the recreation consists of fishing, hunting, and local sports.
My experience tells me that you have better control, better profits, and that you promote goodwill by locating in rural America than by going overseas.
Chuck H on March 6th, 2005 2:42 pm
As someone who lives in a rural area and is involved in local economic development projects, I’d love to get the inside track on some of this rural outsourcing! I see Medical Transcription as one option… I’d like to know more. Good post Dane.
Business Opportunities Weblog En Español on March 4th, 2005 10:18 am
Outsourcing de Trabajos High-Tech a la América Rural
NPR: En la ultima década un numero cada vez mayor de compañías estadounidenses han estado reduciendo costos radicalmente enviando los trabajos de manufactura y servicio al consumidor al exterior, donde los costos por recursos humanos son dramáticamente…
Brewed Fresh Daily on March 6th, 2005 6:04 am
Keeping IT graduates here
Neil at CoolTownStudios.com posts about a company that “links [the] IT needs of major companies with large IT talent pools… in low-cost-of-living college towns:A recent survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting in New York confirms the low cost of d…
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