Legislature Vying to Keep California Jobs On-Shore

With offshoring becoming a hot topic not only in the media, but in the halls of Sacramento as well, California legislators are considering several bills that would help keep jobs in the US. Many industries are impacted by offshoring, but the biggest bite is being felt in the high-tech and service sector markets who have seen their jobs reappear in foreign countries.

Assembly Bill 1829, sponsored by Rep. Carol Liu, would ban government vendors from sending contract work overseas to low-wage labor. Instead it would require all service contracts by state contractors and subcontractors be performed solely by workers located within the United States. It would also prohibit the use of state taxpayer funds from contracting with companies that send work to other countries. For instance, the bill would prohibit state welfare and food stamps call centers from moving to Mexico.

"There's a great irony here that we're telling people on welfare to find jobs, and the kind of jobs they could do are not here anymore," said Richard Johnson, Liu's legislative aid.

Senate Bill 1492 sponsored by Joe Dunn would guarantee that no work that is privacy related can be done outside the United States. Work on X-rays, medical records, court documents, tax forms, homeland security or financial analyses is all being done in other countries. The potential security risks were accentuated in October when a worker in Pakistan threatened to release patient records from UC San Francisco across the internet in an employment dispute.

"Senator Dunn believes the only way to protect consumer privacy is to prohibit this practice," said Elena Lopez-Gusman, a consultant to Dunn.

Neither the Bureau of Labor Statistics nor the Employment Development Department (EDD) currently collect any data on the outsourcing of jobs. This data is critical to track employment trends and enact needed policy interventions.

Another Assembly Bill, 3021 sponsored by the Assembly Labor Committee, would require employers to report to the EDD annually the number of jobs maintained in California, in other states, and outside of the United States.

These bills are expected to easily pass the Legislature, but could face problems from Gov. Schwarzenegger who has promised to make California friendlier to businesses.

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