Skill Structure and Labour Mobility in Outsourcing Industries

In this paper, we investigate, by merging the Danish linked employer-employee database with a Danish offshoring survey, the difference in employment between offshoring and non-offshoring firms that are active in manufacturing industries and business services in Denmark. We measure the mean difference on a set of employment characteristics, i.e. employment growth, growth in high skilled employees, and growth in employees with a background in science and engineering by using a partial propensity score matching approach. The findings of the analyses show that there are clear differences between Danish offshoring and non-offshoring firms in how the employee composition changes over time. These changes differ considerably between manufacturing industries and business services.