Many workers, politicians, and commentators across the developed world emphasize the loss of jobs to low-cost labor elsewhere. Responses to McKinsey Global Surveys over the past several months indicate that the trend may be shifting.
Respondents across developed economies indicate that getting the same work done elsewhere is not high on their agendas, though there are some differences among them. In the latest survey,1 for example, more than half of the executives at companies headquartered in the developed world say the majority of their new jobs will be created in the same country as the corporate headquarters. And among the smaller group who say most jobs will be created abroad, more than two-thirds expect the majority of them to consist of new functions (Exhibit 1). Only a quarter say that most new jobs created abroad will be the same as those now performed at home.
Around the world, executives have consistently reported that far more companies plan to increase their workforces than to decrease them and that a majority of the new jobs will be created at home (Exhibit 2). Moreover, of the small number...