UK population feels increasingly threatened by offshoring

The UK public perceive offshoring to be an increasing threat with 82% believing enough jobs have moved offshore already, according to a Deloitte/YouGov survey of attitudes to global economic competition published to coincide with the 2006 CBI annual conference. Just 4% of respondents support the continuation of offshoring and almost 1 in 3 (32%) believe UK companies should be forced to bring jobs back to the UK.

Public attitudes towards offshoring have become more negative since the survey was initially conducted in January this year when 22% of respondents thought UK companies should be forced to bring jobs back to the UK. In January 29% said they could see the advantages of offshoring, or even thought it was a good thing, compared with just 13% now. Several announcements have been made in the past 10 months on plans to increase offshoring across a variety of sectors.

David Owen, consulting partner at Deloitte, comments: ìThere are clearly personal concerns over job security behind the negative attitudes to offshoring and our own insights suggests we can expect massive increase in the financial services sector alone. Growing awareness of the increased mobility of both resource and labour is causing anxiety with 17% of respondents believing that offshoring presents a threat to their own jobs while a further 25% think the increasing number of workers migrating to the UK is their biggest threat.î

When asked which countries posed the biggest challenges to the UK economy over the next five years, the emerging economies of China (76%) and India (48%) came out top, followed by the US (34%) and Japan (32%). David Owen commented: ìThe speed and energy with which India and China are increasingly competing on equal footing was a key subject of debate at the CBI conference this week and the fact is that these economies have the potential to create major openings for UK companies.

ìAs the worldís leading recipient of inward Foreign Direct Investment, the UK is experiencing a huge in-flow of companies from India and China, with a surge of listings over the past three years on both LSE and AIM. Companies are investing in the UK because of its open door policy and the nexus of business and financial services around London ñ which now offers the best breadth and depth of professional services skills sets and depth of international perspectives in the world. This is not to say the UK is without challenges, we still need to ensure that we are competitive from a tax and regulation perspective.î

65% of survey respondents said that investment in education and training was required for the UK to maintain global competitiveness (75% in January); the next highest being more encouragement for small business start-ups and entrepreneurialism 57% (69% in January). When asked which sectors the UK was most likely to be a world leader in, financial services came out top (32%), followed by professional services (25%), media and creativity (26%) and telecommunications and technology combined at 24%.

John Kerr, managing partner for innovation at Deloitte, comments:

ìThe transfer of jobs at some skill levels is a trend that is likely to continue and brings with it opportunities as well as threats. The UK needs to be in a position to benefit from operations moving offshore, rather than be threatened by the increasingly global nature of the product and services markets and this is front of mind with our top business leaders. In the financial services sector, for example, there is a huge amount of reinvestment of the cost saving made through offshoring to develop the high value end of the business and this should encourage the UK public to feel more optimistic.

ìIf the UK is to thrive as a world leader in financial and professional services and media and technology sectors as the public predicts, then we clearly need a highly skilled workforce to fill these roles and this is recognised by the public in the call for more investment in education and training. We hear frequent warnings of future skill gaps in many of these sectors and this brings urgency to the need for the UK to identify the key areas of potential weakness for the UK and to take actions on issues such as learning and skills, training, regulation and their link with productivity.î

Other key findings:

- 50% of respondents believe that the UK status as a global power is declining while 5% think it is increasing
- 69% of respondents believe that Government is responsible for global competition (down from 77%)
- 38% of respondents believe that business is responsible for global competition (down from 52%)
- 66% of those questioned said they would relocate internationally to be better off financially
- 64% said they would move to improve their work/life balance
- 53% would leave the UK for better education and skills training

This time last year a separate Deloitte report, Trading Places*, ranked the UK as sixth most competitive place to do business, amongst 25 major world economies. However, this ranking was projected to slide to 12th place within the next five years if UK Government and businesses do not work together to ensure the macroeconomic environment, skills, investment, enterprise and innovation continues to be world class in the UK.