Job prospects aren’t so hot for workers in the United States, as evidenced by our 8.8 percent unemployment rate. But while U.S. companies are cutting back on hiring at home, they’re adding plenty of staff overseas, The Wall Street Journal Reports.

In the 2000s, U.S. companies with global operations, which employ 20 percent of all American workers, cut 2.9 million people from U.S. payrolls, while increasing their workforce by 2.4 million overseas, according to new Commerce Department data.

Job seekers wait in line (Getty photo)

That’s quite a turn from the 1990s, when the multinationals brought on 4.4 million U.S. workers and 2.7 million foreign employees.

"It's definitely something to worry about," Dartmouth College economist Matthew Slaughter, an adviser to former president George W. Bush, tells The Journal.

Companies are attracted by the strong growth overseas, particularly in emerging markets, and a regulatory environment that is sometimes more friendly in foreign countries.

"As a greater percentage of our sales have been outside the U.S., we have seen our work force outside the U.S. grow," Jim Dugan, a spokesman for Caterpillar, tells The Journal.

In addition, increased productivity in the United States lessens the need for workers here.

In any case, with U.S. payrolls rising 216,000 in March, some economists say the job outlook is improving. “It does look like things have turned the corner,” Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James, tells Bloomberg.