Hira offers Congressional testimony

Ronil Hira, assistant professor of public policy at RIT, testified before the House of Representative’s Committee on Small Business on Oct. 20.

Ronil Hira

Hira, an expert on engineering workforce issues, testified on offshore outsourcing of high-skilled jobs. He last testified before the House Small Business Committee in June on behalf of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA, for which he chairs the research and development policy committee.

Last year, Hira studied the Indian information technology industry and the relationship between the software industry and the use of visas in the United States.

“Previously, it was the Indian companies that had specialized in offshore outsourcing,” he says. “Now it’s IBM, Intel, EDS, etc. To cut costs, these major U.S. multinationals are doubling and tripling overseas staff at the same time that they are reducing U.S. headcounts.”

He adds: “The thing I’m most concerned about is R&D. Countries like India, China and Russia are targeting R&D as part of their strategy. The geographic location of R&D does matter. Countries that attract R&D will reap a large amount of the spillover benefits from it.”
The geographic shift of high-skilled jobs from America to overseas operations will have impacts on U.S. labor markets and its future technological capabilities, Hira says.

According to Hira, outsourcing started with software companies and now includes engineering design, financial services and most any back-office job.

“The U.S. needs a coordinated national strategy designed to sustain its technological leadership and promote job growth in response to the concerted strategies being used by other countries to attract these high-technology U.S. industries and jobs,” he testified before the House. “Instead of erecting protectionist barriers we should implement policies that make U.S. workers more productive and help those workers, who are displaced by free trade, to transition to new positions and new professions. Unfortunately, this latter point, which is quite difficult to execute in practice, is often overlooked by free trade advocates.”

Prior to joining RIT this fall, Hira completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University’s Center for Science, Policy and Outcomes.

Hira’s written testimony is available at www.rit.edu/news/misc/docs/testimony.pdf.