©1998 EyeWire, Inc.

Canada needs to do more to protect vulnerable knowledge industry jobs, while at the same time seizing the opportunities presented by offshoring and outsourcing, says a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The report says Canada needs to identify the occupations where it can compete and win, and support these jobs with technology investments and business innovations. At the same time, Canada needs to be open to the movement of other knowledge jobs to lower cost regions.

The document projects 2.4 million knowledge workers and 3.3 million employees in manufacturing production jobs will be affected by global competition and job mobility in the next decade.

"To protect and improve our standard of living, Canadian business and government leaders must embrace the global division of knowledge work while ensuring that our Canadian businesses and workforce have the strategies and capabilities they need to compete on the global stage," says Robert Scott, leader of PwC Canada's IT advisory practice.

Canadian companies are lagging in making the investments they need to respond effectively to offshoring, says the report. Canadian organizations lag the U.S. and other global competitors in the use of offshoring, and this is related to the low adoption of information technologies and innovative business practices in Canada.

"Modularization, networked collaboration, and focusing on what you do best – these are the preconditions to the outsourcing of global knowledge work. Canadian companies fall behind in the ability to capitalize on new low cost sources of information and communications technology-related global knowledge work."

Meanwhile, U.S. firms in every industry – from financial services to manufacturing – are undertaking aggressive projects to make the organizational changes that capitalize on their IT and communications investment.

Respondents to the PwC study are split on whether the globalization of knowledge work is an opportunity or a threat.

The survey found that 39 per cent of respondents in information and communications technology think the impact of globalization of knowledge work on the Canadian labour force will be bad in both the short and the long term. However, 29 per cent expect the complete opposite, seeing both short and long term benefits.

Respondents in other industries are a bit more optimistic, with 57 per cent believing offshoring will hurt Canadian workers in the short term, but benefit them in the long run. However, 29 per cent agreed with the IT people who believe that short- and long-term, offshoring is bad for Canadian workers.