U.S. companies are hiring…overseas

Pallavi Gogoi for the Associated Press…

The trend helps explain why unemployment remains high in the United States, edging up to 9.8 percent last month, even though companies are performing well: All but 4 percent of the top 500 U.S. corporations reported profits this year, and the stock market is close to its highest point since the 2008 financial meltdown.

For example, take DuPont… a quintessential U.S. company. Founded in 1802, they’ve been awarded the National Medal of Technology four times. Its stock price is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

DuPont now sells less than a third of its products in the U.S. In the first nine months of this year, sales to the Asia-Pacific region grew 50 percent, triple the U.S. rate. Its stock is up 47 percent this year.

[…]

The company said its number of employees in the U.S. shrank by 9 percent between January 2005 and October 2009. In the same period, its work force grew 54 percent in the Asia-Pacific countries.

Why are Americans buying so little of what DuPont offers? Why are they hiring so few people in the U.S.?

The answer shouldn’t be a surprise.

A key factor behind this runaway international growth is the rise of the middle class in these emerging countries. By 2015, for the first time, the number of consumers in Asia’s middle class will equal those in Europe and North America combined.

Asian nations have been building a skilled, educated, and economically stable workforce.

Meanwhile, we’ve crossed the 50 Million uninsured mark. With 27% of uninsured adults using up most or all of their savings to pay medical bills last year.

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