Because we are in a Global Marketplace, commodity-based industries domiciled here in the US have been "exporting" jobs to Indonesia and elsewhere for quite some time.
Take a look at Chevron for instance.
Their headquarters is in San Ramon, California, which the last time I checked was in an area that had a VERY high cost of living, especially due to housing prices. Yet, they have been "exporting" their entire IT department over to Indonesia ( just like Dell's Technical Support ). Hence, no need to pay "expensive" labor in the San Francisco Bay Area to show up at work at the company's headquarters in San Ramon!
In fact, aside from marketing purposes ( with the West Coast being a large marketplace for gasoline, etc. ) there is really no reason that Chevron even needs to be based in the San Francisco Bay Area where the cost of living is so high. Hence, many positions have been shifted back to Houston where Texaco is. Yet, San Ramon is still headquarters to Chevron.
In fact, I know of some managers at Chevron here in San Ramon that would welcome a "demotion" if they could get reassigned to a cheaper place to live. Moreover, The only way that you are able to "advance" through such an organization is to be willing to move to London or Indonesia. Now how many working heads of households and a family of 4 are going to be willing to do that?
As a result, the opportunities for advancement in a global commodity player like Chevron are few and far between, here in the states . . . And I might add that this is nothing new, it's been going on for years now!