Agence France Presse

Washington, March 14:

Outsourcing of US jobs to Asia is expected to slowdown as the Bush administration comes under heavy fire from opposition Democrats who charge the policy is creating widespread unemployment, analysts say.

The shifting of American jobs offshore, particularly to China, India, South Korea and Southeast Asia, amid sluggish job growth at home has emerged a key issue ahead of the US presidential election due on November 2.

The migration stems from new technology and the plummeting cost of global communications which allow accounting, computer programming, call-centre and procurement work to be done in places like India’s IT capital Banglore, or Cebu city in the Philippines, for a fraction of the cost in the United States.

But US Senator John Kerry, the presumptive challenger to Republican president George W Bush, has questioned the ‘offshoring’ of well-paying jobs when government surveys show the US private sector is generating barely any new jobs.

Worse still, more than 2.3 million Americans have lost their jobs during Bush’s tenure while the US trade deficit swelled to an all-time record of $43.1 billion in January, highlighting the tensions over moving employment overseas.

Nearly 60 per cent of Americans polled this week by the USA Today newspaper said the issue of keeping jobs from going overseas will be “very important” in deciding whether they would vote for Bush or Kerry.