Slashdot Mirror
India Will Need to Recruit 120,000 Foreigners
indi_jobs writes "After all the noise about jobs moving from Europe and USA to India, ZDNet India is reporting that 'India faces a massive shortage of workers with European language skills over the next five years which could see the country needing to recruit up to 120,000 foreigners...' Looks like the jobs may be moving to India but they might require the original people to do some of the jobs!" From the article: "Evalueserve said the ramping up of non-English speaking capability by the Indian offshore firms is an attempt to capture a larger share of the continental European outsourcing market, and reduce the country's high-risk exposure of more than 80 per cent of business coming from the UK and the U.S. economies."
To attract new workers in India and people (as many as 120k) to India, wouldn't they need to offer better benefits, less taxes, higher pay, etc? At that point, wouldn't it make more sense to bring the work back to this side of the ocean?
karma
My resume is on my web page.
"A witty saying proves nothing." ~Voltaire
"d'Oh!" ~Homer
Looks like the jobs may be moving to India but they might require the original people to do some of the jobs!
Ah, the joys of documenting others' code.
Given that non-English language skills are the problem, Americans are still out of luck...
To combat the labour shortage, India should outsource the work to North America and Europe. Lots of surplus labour. And the way wages are climbing in India, the West might be able to do it cheaper.
-- Thou hast strayed far from the path of the Avatar.
Benefits all around
English-speaking language skills could also be in short supply.
I find this hard to believe considering the proficiency in English I see evidenced in the average Indian help desk I've frequented. I'd venture to say some of them speak even more weller than some Slashdot editors.
as a reduced price lunch.
It looks like the supply end of the curve is dropping as the demand curve goes up. Before you know it, this could result in an increasing cost of outsourced workers. Combined with the exact opposite curve in the countries doing the outsourcing (i.e. low demand == lower cost workers), a balance will soon have to be struck that will again restore tech workers to a thriving market in both America/Europe and India. No, there's not going to be another "tech boom". That's over with.
:-)
I have to say that I found the article rather amusing, as I've ran up against many of the "English speaking" Indian call centers. (I'm looking at you Citibank.)
Q: What do you get when you mix an Indian accent with the British flavor of English?
A: Something completely incomprehensible to an American.
It's amazing how many cues exist in the accents we use in our language. American English is actually quite forgiving of foreign accents, but it frustrates me to no end trying to understand the Indian on the other end. It's not that he has an Indian accent. The reps actually tend to speak English quite well. The problem is that the slight Indian accent completely throws off the British accent (which most Americans are unaccustomed to anyway) and makes it very difficult to comprehend their speach. Add the quality of a telephone connection on the mix and you've got a communications disaster far worse than the bored utterances of the previous Floridians. (Who were no shining examples of pretty speech themselves.)
Ok, I'm done complaining. I'm sure I'll soon be hearing from all manners of Indians, British, and Floridians who all feel slighted just because I had a bad customer support experience. Cheerio!
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
The technical people in India and other third-world countries already have a standard of living that's equal or above their counterparts in the USA and Europe. Their wages only seem so low because the money exchanges aren't linear.
India, China, and other countries keep their exchange rates artificially low to increase their exports. This is made necessary mostly because the USA and Europe have heavy subsidies on agricultural products that compete with third-world exports. What's the point in subsidizing orange growth in Florida, if Brazil has perfect soil and climate for growing oranges, while Florida is only marginally adequate for oranges? Why does Europe grow sugar beets if sugar cane produces sugar at much lower costs?
In order for less industrialized countries to compete with the agricultural products which make most of their economy, they must lower prices by depressing the exchange rates.
If you are an unemployed engineer in the USA, blame not the CEO who follows a sane economic policy. Blame the farmers and their lobbyists.
You're killing me.
You think it is a good thing that in a country with a billion people, there is a labor shortage of hundreds of thousands in the tech field? This country has a BILLION people. BILLION. This isn't evidence of Indian government doing things right, its evidence of them doings going WRONG. What is wrong with these billion people that not even a fraction of a percent of them are skilled enough to fill these jobs?
The problem inherently lies in education. These billions of Indians don't (yet) have the education to fully compete in the tech field. The labor force is not up to par when it comes to actually knowing how to do the job. Oh, sure the COST of labor is what makes them competitive compared to American workers, but in terms of actually having the necessary skills to compete, its still no contest.
In reality, the fact that there isn't such a huge gap between supply/demand for tech workers in the US, especially porportional to the number of people living in the country, is a good thing. Wait, hear me out. Sure it isn't necessarily appealing at first for you, the worker as an individual. Wages are lower when your skills aren't in demand, everyone knows this. You have to look past that though. The fact that we actually have the labor supply to meet our still rather high demand for tech workers says everything about the education of people living in the US. Imagine if the US had such a labor shortage in the tech field. It would be disasterous! It would be a prime indicator that Americans were simply too dumb to fill the positions. An educated population is a good thing at home, and it is a good thing abroad. As the world becomes more educated, we all benefit.
Praising misguided government "labor policies" for a situation that is really the result of horrible education and living conditions, which have been fostered by their ass-backwards goverment for generations, is just something I won't do. If you think that Indian government policy is really so much better than what takes place in America, then feel free to move over there, as already many posts have suggested doing. I for one would rather be homeless on the streets in the US then work in India. Worker's Paradise it ain't.
"To lead the people, you must walk behind them"