Since 2000, corporations have shipped more than 525,000 white-collar overseas, according to the AFL-CIO department of professional employees. Some estimates say up to 14 million middle-class jobs could be exported out of America in the next 10 years.
Accountants, software engineers—even X-ray technicians—are losing their jobs as corporations look for low-wage workers in countries such as India and China.
At the same time, 3 million manufacturing jobs have been lost since the Bush took office, many of them because corporations have shipped them to countries such as China, which is creating a booming manufacturing industry on the backs of its poorly-paid workers.
Meanwhile, the jobs being created in the United States often are low-wage jobs that don’t offer health coverage or ensure retirement security. Nearly one-quarter of the nation’s workers labor in jobs that generally pay less than the $8.85 hourly wage the U.S. government says it takes to keep a family of four out of poverty. Sixty percent of such workers are women, and many are people of color.
