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The wave of foreign outsourcing and job exports by U.S. firms could hit the Valley economy like a tsunami.
A study by the Greater Phoenix Economic Council concluded that more than 228,000 jobs in Maricopa County are at risk for foreign outsourcing.
That accounts for more than 14 percent of the Valley's 1.6 millionperson work force and comprises a higher percentage than are at risk nationally or in neighboring California.
GPEC's report is based on a 2003 study by University of California at Berkeley economists that found that 16 million U.S and 1.9 million California jobs could be moved to cheaper labor markets such as India, China or the Philippines.
The Berkeley study concluded that any minimal face-to-face contact job that involves "sitting at a desk, talking on the phone or working at a computer" could be shipped offshore to...