Delocalisation or off-shoring of jobs is far from the biggest cause of job destruction in Europe, recent research from Eurofound, the Dublin-based EU agency can reveal. According to its European Restructuring Monitor (ERM), only 8% of announced job losses were due to jobs being moved elsewhere in the period between 2003 and 2006.

The proportion of ERM recorded job losses that are attributable to delocalisation varied from around 25% in Portugal and Ireland to less than 5% in the Netherlands and Belgium. A look at sectors shows that it is in high to medium-tech sectors rather than in low-tech sectors that delocalisation plays the more important role. The sector accounting for the highest proportion of EU jobs lost through delocalisation (one in four of the total) was banking and insurance, a service sector with a generally high-skill profile.

Globalisation brings new opportunities and markets for business, and more choices and lower prices for customers. For workers, however, it can mean the loss of jobs and the erosion of incomes and living standards. Policymakers and business organisations tend to stress the positive effects of increased trade for consumers, in particular lower prices and more choice through increased competition. Trade unions, in general, seem to focus mainly on dealing with the consequences of globalisation on employment, in particular the relocation of jobs to other areas. Employers, for their part, often stress the need to be able to react flexibly in the face of increased international competition. Eurobarometer surveys show that when asked about whether globalisation had positive or negative connotations on EU citizens, the positive results fell from 63% in 2003 to 42% in 2006. The proportion of European citizens seeing globalisation as a threat to employment rose from 39% in 2003 (EU15) to 47% in 2006 (EU25).