Globalization is good
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Globalization creates jobs
Economic liberalization has made it easier for companies to relocate, allowing them to rapidly scale up and create new jobs.
Economics
Globalisation
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Context
Economic globalization, the increased flows of goods, capital and production across international borders, has had a significant impact on global employment. This impact has been resoundingly positive.
Although on a micro-level, some specific industry jobs in some economies have decreased in volume, on a macro-level, the number of jobs available across the globe is at a record high.[1]
The Argument
Globalization has enhanced firms' abilities to relocate their production processes without obstruction or barrier. This allows firms to rapidly scale up and reduce overhead costs by outsourcing processes to nations with cheaper labour costs.
This free flow of labour increases the total number of global jobs.
Imagine a UK-based bank decides to relocate its customer service operations to India. It hires 500 English speaking Indian workers to work in its call centre, bringing 500 jobs to the Indian economy.
The workers that lost their jobs in the UK would then go on to up-skill and find work in other sectors.[2]
Even in nations with higher labour costs, globalization has a positive impact on job numbers.
In the years before the 2008 financial crisis, economic liberalization and globalization were bringing jobs to developing nations with low-cost labor.
Highly open economies with high labor costs like those in Scandinavia or Switzerland did not see their unemployment rates increase.[3]
Since the 1990s, the unemployment rate in developed nations has fallen.
In 2007, the average unemployment rate across OECD nations had dropped to its lowest level since the 1980s.
Counter arguments
Globalization doesn’t create jobs, it merely relocates the jobs to other economies.
When a company moves operations to an economy with lower labor costs, it often employs the same number of workers in the new country and lays off the existing workers in the economy with higher labor costs.
Globalization and the increased flow of products and labour across borders has resulted in increased imports among nations with higher labour costs and increased export rates in economies with low-cost labor.
As the import rate drops, the national job growth rate falls and the total volume of jobs contracts.
Globalisation has not created more jobs, it has simply redistributed the existing jobs to other parts of the globe.[2]
Proponents
Premises
[P1] Globalization allows firms to easily move operations across international borders.
[P2] This allows them to rapidly scale-up and reduce overheads.
[P3] This creates more jobs.
Rejecting the premises
[Rejecting P3] This doesn't create jobs, it merely redistributes them.