WASHINGTON, June 11 (UPI) -- The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports only 2 percent of people laid off from their jobs were replaced by offshore workers.
The BLS report marked the first government effort to quantify the offshoring employment shift. It found that among 239,361 people laid off, only about 2 percent, or 4,633, lost their jobs for reasons "associated with the movement of work outside the country."
However, the figures were based on a survey of a limited sample of companies and is not likely to quell the concern that erupted last year over widely publicized cases of Americans losing their jobs to people in India and China, the Washington Post said Friday.
The survey covered only companies employing at least 50 workers where at least 50 employees were laid off.
Acknowledging the survey's limitations, the department's news release noted the statistics "do not reflect layoffs of less than 50 at these companies, nor do they capture layoffs occurring at establishments with less than 50 workers."
