Not all outsourced jobs to come back to the US: Obama

Washington, Mar 27 (PTI) US President Barack Obama has
hinted that he is not going to insist on bringing back the
low-wage, low-skilled jobs outsourced to countries like India
and China but would work on creating high-skilled, high-paying
jobs, which cannot be off-shored.

The suggestion might come as a big relief to thousands of
youths in countries like India, China and Philippines, where
American companies have outsourced their work.

"It probably wouldn't be good for our economy for a bunch
of these jobs to come back because, there's no way that people
could be getting paid a living wage on some of these jobs --
at least in order to be competitive in an international
setting," Obama said during the course of an online town hall
meeting streamed live on the Internet from the White House.

Obama responded to online video questions in the first of
its kind attempt to establish a direct line of communication
with the masses.

"When can we expect jobs that have been outsourced to
other countries to come back and be made available to the
unemployed here in the US?" was a question posed to him.

"Not all of these jobs are going to come back... What
we've got to do is create new jobs that can't be outsourced,"
Obama answered.

Obama explained: "A lot of outsourcing that was referred
to in the question really has to do with the fact that our
economy, if it's dependent on low-wage, low-skill labor, it's
very hard to hang on to those jobs because there's always a
country out there that pays lower wages than US".

To create new high-skilled jobs, he said, energy is very
promising. In this regard, he said an overhaul of the
electricity grid can generate employment.

"We've been talking about what's called a smart grid...
Think about all the gizmos you are carrying... You're plugging
in all kinds of stuff in your house. We've got an entirely new
set of technologies, huge demands in terms of energy, but
we've got a grid that's completely outdated," he said.

Obama also asked Americans to have some patience as he
works towards revival of economy and new jobs start appearing
in the market. "We're going to have to be patient and
persistent about job creation because I don't think that we've
lost all the jobs we're going to lose in this recession.

"We're still going to be in a difficult time for much of
this year. Employment is typically what's called a lagging
indicator," he said. PTI LKJ
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