A couple months ago, I wrote about the emerging trend of U.S. companies insourcing production jobs back to the U.S. While this serves as great news for our blue-collar workforce, a rather different and alarming trend is befalling our skilled working class.
Based on a recent study by the National Science Board, in the six years through 2009 about 85% of growth in research and development workers employed by U.S.-based multinational companies has been abroad. While this isn’t all bad news. After all, U.S. companies aren’t necessarily closing labs or shedding jobs at home. They’re establishing strongholds within engineering and scientific talent hotbeds (Note: ~56% of the world’s engineering students are foreigners and 57% of doctoral degrees in engineering were awarded to foreigners, mostly from East Asia or India). One has to consider the long-term impact of the U.S.’ austerity efforts on our future supply of skilled talent.
Don’t get me wrong. I readily admit that the U.S. has for some time now spent way beyond its means (how long has it been since Congress delivered a balanced budget?) and significant steps must be taken to get our fiscal house in order. However, we must increasingly question the shortsightedness of continually cutting budgets for low-hanging targets like education and the arts (Note: Based on BLS figures, hundreds of thousands of teaching jobs have been cut over the last several years). Continued negligence by our elected officials may only exacerbate this alarming trend and further deplete our talent.
So while banging the austerity drum makes for good political theater, shouldn’t we be asking ourselves how much is too much? After all, I’d hate to mortgage our future for the short-term gains of the present (not to mention some congressional seats).
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