Low-skilled services aren't the only occupations shifting overseas, says Cornell ILR (industrial and labor relations) School's Sarosh Kuruvilla. His latest research on the subject shows that many high-skilled U.S. jobs, such as financial industry equity research, data modeling and actuarial analysis, are being outsourced to India.

"Not only are well-paid jobs moving from Wall Street to Bangalore," says Kuruvilla, a professor of collective bargaining, comparative industrial relations and Asian studies, "but medical research jobs, including those in radiology, drug discovery and testing, and clinical trials, also are moving to India."

He adds that highly skilled U.S. occupations in several other industries also are being outsourced. "These industries include engineering services -- for a number of different industries, but particularly in aerospace and civil aviation -- software research and development, and in animation," says Kuruvilla. "For India, this movement of jobs to its shores is seen as a valuable opportunity for economic development."

However, Kuruvilla's research shows that the long-term growth of the "Indian outsourcing industry" is likely to be impaired, given current skill shortages in a number of different fields and the inability of the Indian higher education establishment to produce high-end research scientists and engineers -- many of whom leave for the United States.

"Given the established link between investment in human capital and economic growth, developing countries have a strong interest in fostering continuous skills improvement," he says. "The key implication for Indian workforce development is a major reform in its higher education system to produce more and better researchers, scientists and engineers. This involves wholesale rethinking of higher education, not just small-time tinkering."

The movement of such jobs raises fundamental questions for the United States as well.

"Clearly, people with master's degrees in life sciences, chemistry and finance may not find good jobs here," he says.

Even so, Kuruvilla says, citing Princeton economist Alan Blinder's observation, "it is possible that civil engineers -- whose work demands they stay in the U.S. -- may be in greater demand than computer engineers, whose work can be outsourced."

Kuruvilla concludes that America must make investments in basic education and advanced education "such that our system prepares our graduates for highly innovative, higher value-added jobs that help us innovate, while at the same time creating a system that can retrain those whose jobs have disappeared."

Kuruvilla is an international expert in globalization and employment relations, human resources for Asia, labor relations in Asia and outsourcing. He serves as a consultant to many international agencies and governments, and has authored a large number of peer-reviewed journal articles on labor and human resource policies. His latest findings will be published in an upcoming study now under review.