With candidacies being announced and withdrawn almost daily, the run-up to the US 2012 presidential elections has officially begun. While campaigns are slowly getting into swing, so do speculations about what topics candidates will address. Because of the struggling US economy and unemployment figures still in the double-digits, creating jobs and strengthening the US economy will definitely be among the top issues. 

President Obama, who made outsourcing a topic of last year’s Midterm Election Campaign and recently passed tax cuts for US companies deciding not to outsource, could likely bring the topic back up. While targeting outsourcing as a scapegoat for the general economic malaise might work equally well for both party’s campaigns, painting a one-sided picture of the overseas operation the world’s largest customer of outsourcing services is running will likely not do the global dynamics of outsourcing justice.

President Obama accounted for the tax cuts of domestic job creation, stating that it was implausible that `you should pay lower taxes if you create a job in Bangalore, India, than if you create one in Buffalo, New York’. Critics have addressed the singling out of Bangalore, like in the term ‘bangalored’ being used synonymously with outsourced. Indeed, the term feels like a product of too much rhetorical reckoning and too little actual political acumen.

The United States are a major outsourcing customer, employing overseas companies in sectors like production, BPO services, legal outsourcing and Product Design and Development. The US uses foreign manpower to such a high extent that immigrants and outsourced workers comprise over one quarter of the country’s workforce. The outsourcing industry is netting a US$ 50 billion profits for US-American companies each year.

US industries are clearly depending on outsourced work. Still, political agendas require the kind of rhetoric that makes domestic job creation the top priority in facilitating economic growth. Outsourced workers, whether they are assembling car parts or working in Product Design and Development, hold key positions in the operations of American firms. They are ready to step in whenever local talent is lacking. Political campaigns still choose to demonize the powerful global movement that is benefiting US industries tremendously. 

In fact, Indian outsourcers run such successful cooperations with US firms that some of them are bringing jobs back to American soil. Indian BPO provider Aegis currently employs over 5,000 US citizens and is looking to add 10,000 more to its payroll over the course of the next three years. This practice dubbed ‘local hiring’ enables the company to hire talent that the struggling US market is currently not able to employ. Also, as the company admits, it is providing comfort to their US customers, likely the ones who fell victim to the political fearmongering surrounding outsourced services.