There is a widespread perception, supported by a spate of anecdotes, that a sharp rise in the outsourcing of jobs overseas by domestic firms ("offshoring"), together with the growth of low wage imports generally, are major culprits in the surprising failure of employment to recover after the last recession. This Policy Brief gathers some of the evidence bearing on this issue, and tries to provide a sense of how important these phenomena are as a component of the shortfall in jobs during the economic recovery in 2002 and 2003.