Weltweiter Wettbewerb und Standortentscheidungen europäischer Unternehmen

Nur 8% der Arbeitsplatzverluste in Europa zwischen 2003 und 2006 sind auf eine Verlagerung der Beschäftigung in ein anderes Land zurückzuführen. Dies ergab eine neue Studie der EU-Agentur Eurofound.

Contrary to public perception, most jobs have not been relocated offshore but simply destroyed, as was the case for heavy industry in large parts of Europe in the 1970s and 1980s, the study says. 

These results take the wind out of the sails of critics of globalisation, who blame companies for offshoring jobs to Eastern Europe or East Asia where labour is cheaper. 

In total, less than 200,000 jobs have been relocated or offshored within the EU or to a non-European country over the four-year period concerned, while there was no indication of a future increase, the study says. Research showed that off-shoring is increasingly becoming a more significant phenomenon in the new Eastern member states. 

However, the proportion of recorded job losses attributable to offshoring varies widely across the EU. In Portugal and Ireland, offshoring accounts for around 25% of job losses, while in the Netherlands and Belgium figures were as low as 5%, according to Eurofound. 

The study also shows that offshoring takes place to a much higher degree in the service and high-tech sectors, with banking and insurance accounting for the highest proportion of EU jobs lost through delocalisation (25%). Figures in this sector were the highest in the UK. 60% of job losses in these sectors were due to relocation, mostly to Asia. 

Relatively few of the job losses related to offshoring happened to be in more basic manufacturing industries, such as textiles and clothing. These jobs were largely moved to the new Eastern member states. 

Meanwhile, the manufacturing sector as a whole accounts for half of all offshore job losses.  

The study concludes by speculating that the main negative impact of offshoring on the European job market is that jobs are being created elsewhere in the world instead.