American Labor Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

American Labor - Essay Example Many western and European production oriented companies started reducing their operations in their native countries thus resulting in job cuts. As this trend continues unabated, concerns of increasing unemployment figures are being expressed by analysts. Countries like US, UK and Germany are considered to be the ones from where multinational companies have moved their operations eastward. It is widely believed that opening of economic policies results in mutual benefits for the trading nations, but when it is felt that jobs are being taken away from one country and handed over to another country, then it gives rise to a peculiar social sector problem. United States of America recently saw a political campaign, during which outsourcing and increasing unemployment figures were big issues. Therefore, it becomes all the more necessary for the US government to get to the depth of the issue and try to figure out an acceptable solution. If we take a look at look at the figures of US trade with China during the last 10 years (during the period 1999-2008), we find that the trade deficit has indeed widened between in favor of China (US Census Bureau, 2009). It is therefore quite clear that while on the one hand the Chinese dominance is increasing by leaps and bounds in the US market, the US exports to China have not been able to match the import figures. In fact, today China has literally become a talking point at all international forum. Besides some of the issues involving human rights, Tibet, Taiwan etc. the rapid progress made by the country on the trade and industry front has provided a leading edge to China. Supplies of cheaper goods to countries around the world, hazardous paints in toys etc. are also being discussed as the shortcomings arising out of China in the recent past. While the US seems to be facing a number of problems in the form of outsourcing and job losses, China is steadily making a progress in its economic standards. This gives rise to questions like, is the growth of China at the cost of other nations progress Is the Chinese cheap labor stealing jobs from their US counterparts Liberalization and the Aftereffect During the early years of liberalization China's fastest growing sectors were textiles, apparel, footwear, and toys. During the period between 1980 and 1998, this sector saw a growth of more than ten-fold from $4.3 billion to $53.5 billion (Lardy, 2003). But in recent years China seems to have become tech savvy as well. Now, the country is attracting the industries like consumer electronics, automobiles, computers and other information technology products from all across the world. Since the