New York: An overwhelming majority of American voters are of the opinion that outsourcing will be an important issue in determining their vote in the November Presidential elections, a new survey has indicated.

As many as 68 percent of respondents said American jobs and foreign competition will the major determining factor and another 22 per cent consider it somewhat important, according to a poll released Friday (Feb 19, 2004) by the American news magazine, 'Newsweek'. Asked which Presidential candidate would do the best job of protecting American jobs and creating new ones, regardless of the candidate they may support, 35 percent said President George W Bush.

But the democratic front-runner for the Presidential race John Kerry was close behind with 31 per cent and John Edwards, whose campaign is picking up, distant third with only 18 per cent.

But the bad news for Bush is that 55 per cent disapproved of the way he is handling American jobs and foreign competition with just 32 per cent showing their approval.

As many as 80 per cent of those polled said a major reason for the loss of American jobs to foreign competitors, was that people in other countries were willing to work for lower pay and 77 percent said a major reason was that investors and CEOs wanted to make profits.