The white-collar world will never be the same

 Work from home has made it easier for companies to outsource jobs overseas for a cheaper price

For years, businesses have been outsourcing labor overseas to enhance profits and provide jobs to foreigners. While people criticize companies for doing that, at the same time, investors welcome that. Globalization has enhanced profits a lot but the benefits were limited as many saw factory work and customer service as some of the things that can be outsourced.

As the pandemic showed us that many white-collar jobs can be done at home, employers are starting to realize that those jobs can easily be outsourced for a cheaper price. While business owners are grinning at the margin expansions from outsourcing, white-collar workers are going to have sleepless nights knowing that they can be easily replaced.

The shift to outsourcing more white-collar jobs will be slow as governments are encouraging businesses to hire people from their own country rather than overseas. This movement will become stronger as governments focus on recovering from the economic fallout of the pandemic.

But once we have recovered and governments start being loose on hiring overseas, businesses will start laying off white-collar workers and start hiring people overseas to do the job, for a lower price. Not only do businesses get to spend less on office space but they also have lower salary expenses.

In an economy like that, only those that have a skill that’s marketable will be able to survive and even thrive in an environment like that. Otherwise, those who don’t have marketable skills won’t be doing well.

As this trend emerges and accelerates after the recovery, the question is “how do we provide jobs to those that have no skills?”