According to Christopher B. Doob, outsourcing is companies' subcontracting of services to other companies instead of continuing to provide those services themselves. This takes away from jobs offered in the United States and makes it more difficult to maintain and get jobs. Outsourcing raises the unemployment rate, and while outsourcing has been steadily increasing since the 1990s, data on the subject is limited by the power elite. Companies like Apple and Nike outsource jobs overseas so they can have cheaper labor to make their products and keep from raising prices in the States.