Offshoring refers to the relocation or assignment of business activities, tasks, or jobs from one country to another. This may involve moving entire positions or operational functions overseas; shifting specific tasks or components of work to foreign affiliates or contractors; or expanding employment in international locations in ways that substitute for, or reduce, domestic hiring. Offshoring can occur at the job level (visible relocation of positions) or at the task level, where discrete functions—such as software development, accounting services, customer support, or data processing—are performed abroad even if the core job remains domestically based.

International business expansion differs from offshoring. Companies may grow internationally by opening new markets, adding foreign operations, or increasing overseas employment—without reducing their domestic employment. In such cases, global growth complements rather than substitutes for domestic hiring.

Measurement note: Because modern work is increasingly organized around tasks rather than fixed job roles, offshoring is often difficult to measure directly. Policymakers typically rely on indirect indicators such as multinational employment trends, trade in services data, foreign affiliate activity, or industry-level employment patterns.

These terms should not be confused with:

• Outsourcing, which refers to contracting work to an external entity and may occur either domestically or internationally.
• Globalization or international expansion more broadly, which does not necessarily involve substituting foreign labor for domestic labor.