Inside the small world of skilled workers

Phoenix was swarming with call centers in the mid-1990s, and new communities quickly filled with the unskilled employees who staffed them.

Flash forward a few years, and these low-level jobs were all outsourced to India, where workers can do the same work for $2 a day. The unemployed call center workers then flocked into jobs as realtors, mortgage brokers and appraisers, fueling the temporary housing boom in Phoenix.

Now, in a stunning turnaround, these former call center workers are receiving collection calls from the Indian workers who took their jobs, asking them to make their mortgage, auto, and credit card payments. And  their real estate related jobs are fast disappearing, as the housing market crumbles.

Read more about skilled workers in high demand.