Michael Le, CEO of Raleigh-based International IT Services, provides technology-consulting services for one-fifth the cost of most technical consulting firms. He can do this because his workers live in Vietnam. Meanwhile, in North Carolina, the unemployment rate continues to push the tiles off the ceiling.

Overseas developing nations are striving to bolster the quality of life for their citizens. In the U.S. sit the thousands of unemployed techies who once enjoyed very lucrative careers, but now must borrow against their homes and take low-paying service jobs. In between are corporate executives and boards of directors trying to please shareholders.

Some say that what NAFTA did for the textile and manufacturing industries, so global outsourcing is disassembling the technical teams of mounting numbers in the United States. Others welcome this new source of knowledge-base workers who fore see globalization ultimately become an integral part of the American economy, allowing domestic companies to concentrate on leadership driven enterprises.

"We do not take away U.S. jobs," explains Le. "In reality, and especially in this economic climate, we save U.S. jobs since the U.S. companies save so much money outsourcing their IT requirements. They can reallocate the money they save to retrain their IT employees so that they can keep them and best utilize their skill set."

Jeff K. Smith, business development manager for Software Development Europe, Inc., an American software design, development and testing company, also points out that these jobs are not being moved offshore for the purpose of reducing American jobs, but to break into other markets. "If a company already has a presence or they are trying to create awareness in another country, placing an employee base in that country helps boost business growth. This could allow the company to hire more American workers," Smith explains.

Forrester Research, a Cambridge, Mass., consulting firm that identifies and analyzes emerging trends in technology and their impact on business, reports that nearly one million IT-related jobs will move offshore over the course of the next 15 years. General Electric, IBM, Motorola and Microsoft have all opened research centers in China recently. Intel's Pentium 4 chips are assembled and Dell Computers are built there. DuPont, Emerson Electric and dozens of other Fortune 500 companies have also moved production to China.

Corporations are moving jobs overseas because they can get more bang for their buck. And the local IT workers who have been deleted - mainly entry to mid-level programmers - must reinvent their skill set.

COMPETITIVE EVOLUTION

Responsibility to correct the imbalance rests with both employers and employees; say those involved in the debate. Corporations have a responsibility to the community from which they've flourished and employees bear the responsibility of upgrading their skills and talents to make themselves worth the higher wages.

Craig Butler, an account executive in DBM's Raleigh office, says that in today's tight global job market, hiring executives are looking for employees who are nothing less than a perfect fit. And they are willing to go through lengthy hiring processes to get that perfect candidate. DBM, a provider of strategic human resource solutions, helps organizations align their workforces to meet changing business needs. Butler says he sees first hand what global competition is creating in the workforce.

"Employees must continually enhance their skills to remain competitive," Butler says. "And the resume and cover letter must be flawless." Leadership and management skills are becoming more in demand as front line people are hired in other countries. People who can manage offshore projects also are more in demand.

Butler emphasizes, "Just as the American manufacturer had to evolve, so must the IT people stay ahead of their game through education and certification."

Smith agrees. He says, "Many of the IT jobs moving over seas are the tedious, less exciting positions that many Americans would rather not to do.'

On the other hand, there are pitfalls to offshore outsourcing, says Butler. "More often, we see huge cultural differences that can be difficult to surmount," he says. "Other managers in other countries may not possess the same sense of urgency when issues arise, and it is often more difficult to impart that importance when a CEO is not onsite - or even in the same country. Many companies are trying it out and canceling their offshore partnerships because of that."

But whether a company decides to downsize locally to decrease costs, or bring in management from overseas headquarters, it is all the more important for management to maintain impeccable communications with American employees, Butler adds. "When people understand why a certain skill set was brought over, or even why certain jobs are being outsourced, it is easier for them to buy-in to the idea," he says.

SHIFTING LOYALTIES

Mark Finkelstein, an attorney with Raleigh-based Herring McBennett Mills & Finkelstein, PLLC, says he brings a unique perspective to the debate of corporate profits over corporate America's responsibility to its workers. "I'm one of the very few people I know who has worked on both sides of this issue that has polarized employers and employees for years," he says. "I've represented everyone from a plant that was closing and shipping its jobs overseas to a Siek man who was terminated by a health care organization because he refused to shave his beard."

Finkelstein provides administrative and civil litigation services and business and employment law advice, including litigation involving unfair trade practices, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, breach of contract, employment law, environmental claims, negligence and trade secret protection. He says there are three perspectives to the globalization issue.

"Traditionally, the board of directors runs a company and their obligation is to maximize their value," he says. "If they can make more profits by offshoring, they have an obligation to do so. This very much follows the fair market model."

He says that government changes those obligations when a company becomes insolvent. "The obligation then switches from shareholders to creditors." And the government protects displaced workers with laws that offer protections such as the WARN Act, which requires plants to give a notice of its closing and provide retraining funds.

Finally, the non-shareholding low wage consumers - most of us - benefit from the shifts to offshore workers. "For example, the average parent wants to buy a talking Elmo for his kid," Finkelstein says. "At one time, this may have been made by U. S. workers earning higher wages and cost the parent $6. Now he can buy it made in China for $2."

Finkelstein says the key to a balanced economy of scale is for corporate decision makers to decide where the best quality for the best price can be achieved. And with America continuing to set the standards of quality, the higher paying design jobs will remain in the U.S., which makes the importance of our school systems ever more urgent.

"We need to keep reinventing ourselves," he suggests. "As a society, our responsibility is to support local education. The way to keep jobs in the U.S. is to make sure U.S. workers remain the most competitive and best educated on the planet, so that companies are paying higher wages and getting higher value."

In addition, maintaining a higher paid workforce also creates greater consumer spending, which supports corporate profits. "Having workers with higher incomes is more important to American companies than they may realize," Finkelstein says.

While sending his work overseas to his Vietnamese homeland, Le contends that he also is contributing to the American economy by maintaining a U.S. corporate headquarters in Raleigh. "We pay the taxes here," he says. "That is one way we differentiate ourselves from foreign headquartered companies."

Meanwhile, the wagons of controversy are turning with organizations such as Tradealert.com, a web-based watchdog group sponsored by the U. S. Business and Industry Council. Tradealert publishes names of corporations who send work overseas. The group also recommends actions that can influence more fair trade policies. The list includes running for office on a pro-American jobs platform, contacting elected officials, writing editorials and sending money to groups such as their own.