Where Are The Jobs? For Many Companies, Overseas 

Associated Press
December 28, 2010 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=132396866

Corporate profits are up. Stock prices are up. So why isn't
anyone hiring?

Actually, many American companies are - just maybe not in
your town. They're hiring overseas, where sales are surging
and the pipeline of orders is fat.

More than half of the 15,000 people that Caterpillar Inc. has
hired this year were outside the U.S. UPS is also hiring at a
faster clip overseas. For both companies, sales in
international markets are growing at least twice as fast as
domestically.

The trend helps explain why unemployment remains high in the
United States, edging up to 9.8 percent last month, even
though companies are performing well: All but 4 percent of
the top 500 U.S. corporations reported profits this year, and
the stock market is close to its highest point since the 2008
financial meltdown.

But the jobs are going elsewhere. The Economic Policy
Institute, a Washington think tank, says American companies
have created 1.4 million jobs overseas this year, compared
with less than 1 million in the U.S. The additional 1.4
million jobs would have lowered the U.S. unemployment rate to
8.9 percent, says Robert Scott, the institute's senior
international economist.

"There's a huge difference between what is good for American
companies versus what is good for the American economy," says
Scott.

To read more, go to
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=132396866

___________________________________________

Portside aims to provide material of interest to people
on the left that will help them to interpret the world
and to change it.

Submit via email: [log in to unmask]

Submit via the Web: http://portside.org/submittous3

Frequently asked questions: http://portside.org/faq

Sub/Unsub: http://portside.org/subscribe-and-unsubscribe

Search Portside archives: http://portside.org/archive

Contribute to Portside: https://portside.org/donate