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Offshoring: U.S. Semiconductor and Software Industries Increasingly Produce in China and India

GAO-06-423 Published: Sep 07, 2006. Publicly Released: Sep 07, 2006.
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Highlights

Much attention has focused on offshoring of information technology (IT) services overseas. "Offshoring" of services generally refers to an organization's purchase from other countries of services such as software programming that it previously produced or purchased domestically. IT manufacturing, notably semiconductor manufacturing, has a longer history of offshoring of manufacturing operations. Under the Comptroller General's authority to conduct evaluations on his own initiative, GAO addressed the following questions: (1) How has offshoring in semiconductor manufacturing and software services developed over time? (2)What factors enabled the expansion of offshoring in these industries? (3) As these industries have become more global, what have been the trends in their U.S.-based activities?

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Computer hardware industryExportingForeign governmentsInformation technologyInternational tradeIT human capitalLabor costsManufacturing industryResearch and developmentSkilled laborSoftwareSoftware engineeringOffshoring