"Offshoring," or the movement of U.S. engineering and technical jobs over-seas, is striking a raw nerve, sparking political debate and concerns over the. future of the U.S. economy and basic R&D. The IT and telecommunications sector, where the U.S. Jobless rate continues to hover at 7 percent, has been first and hardest hit. The Communication Workers of America reckon that 400,000 U.S. jobs have moved offshore. According to Cambridge Mass., based Giga Information, 200 of the Fortune 500 shipped nearly $7.7 billion worth of IT work overseas last year. Although there are no firm statistics right now, more chemical process design, R&D and engineering jobs also appear to be moving abroad. The economic reasons for off-shoring, outsourcing, or "lower-cost arbitrage," whatever you choose to call the trend, are compelling. But they're compelling only in the short term. And, whether they're eliminating positions or moving them offshore, many U.S. companies are "clearing the decks" in an extremely degrading way. We read, for example, of IT companies giving senior engineers just enough notice to allow them to train their less-costly replacements, here on H-1 B or L-1 visas. One chemical company reportedly laid off 17 people last month, asking those who were "off " that day to come in, then gave them all of 30 minutes to get their things and leave. Police cars have become a fixed presence in company parking lots during U.S. layoffs, just in case anyone decides to "go postal." Given the way that layoffs are handled, it's a wonder that more people don't! Suicides and severe depressions have resulted, in some extreme cases. Xenophobic or knee-jerk responses would be counterproductive. We're living in a global economy, and, if researchers and engineers in Russia or India can most effectively solve a technical problem, why shouldn't they? Ph.D. engineers in Russia earn one-tenth what their American peers do. In many parts of the world today, trained professionals employed by national institutes routinely "moonlight" driving cabs or whatever they can to make ends meet. Surely they deserve more professional opportunities to use their talents. More U.S. chemical companies are planning to tap that underutilized labor pool. Earlier this month, for example, Raymond LeBoeuf, CEO of Pittsburghbased PPG Industries, said that he sees his company "bringing new research to market" - research that, he says, will be increasingly carried out in the former Soviet Union, India and China.