Most people don’t realize that as much that has been outsourced in the US, the outsourcing has create whole new job markets that in the end created more jobs than outsourced.

The civil engineering firm I work for outsources chunks of our plan sets to a company out of Thailand. The mostly do our plan and profile work for roadways in subdivisions and for public works projects. This part of the construction plan production is extremely mundane and time consuming. The outsourcing agency charges per page (not hour!) to complete the work. This saves our clients money and also makes us flexible by not having too much CAD staff during slow periods (like now).

We are the only firm doing this in Houston for civil engineering projects in Land Development and Public Works (linear infrastructure) sectors.

The good news is that the outsourcing agency now seems to become a clearing house for work. A lot of firms would love to take on work where they can get whether in my field or architecture. Work is work. The opportunities that local (US based) firms will receive would be very beneficial for the future.