Offshoring and the financial services industry in Massachusetts

A period of stagnant job growth in the U.S. ensuing the economic recession of 2001 led to heightened fears over the impact of offshoring. Stories of white-collar service sector work leaving the U.S. for offshore locations such as India and China, which were amplified through the nation's media, created the impression that no job in the U.S, at whatever end of the value chain, was safe from competition from offshore locations.;This thesis seeks to evaluate the impact of offshoring on white-collar service sector work in the U.S. It will do so through the prism of the financial services industry in Massachusetts and ask whether fears over the impact of offshoring on white-collar service sector work in the U.S. is founded.;Through the analysis of literature pertaining to the offshoring process, in chapter 2 I reviewed the major issues and points of contention of the current wave of offshoring. In chapter 3 I analyzed federal and state level employment data to identify the evolution of occupations in the financial services industry over the period 1999-2004. Finally, in chapter 4 I presented findings from interviews conducted with eight industry representatives to evaluate their views of the impact of offshoring in the financial services industry.;The paper finds that the threat to financial services industry occupations in the U.S. is limited at present and that the major threat to financial services industry jobs in Massachusetts comes from within the U.S. rather than offshore locations.