The Wall Street Journal reports that Americans are beginning to outsource small private jobs that don’t require face-to-face meetings – landscape design, maths tutoring, book illustration and so on. For example:

Actress Michele Greene, known for her role as Abby on LA Law, has found a way to outsource one of Hollywood’s most entrenched jobs: the personal assistant. She contracted India-based concierge service GetFriday last year. Ms Greene says she pays $150 a month for about 20 hours of service. That’s about $2 less per hour than her LA assistants charged.
Ms Greene says her offshore assistant has been a big help while she works on her second young-adult novel and a country-folk CD in addition to acting projects. Along with paying her bills and booking her flights, her assistant has given her tips on Bollywood movies and Indian food. His recipe for garbanzo beans with eggplant and peppers has become one of her signature dishes. It’s a huge improvement over the unemployed actors who typically fill these jobs in Hollywood, she says: “They’d screw up everything you’d ask them to do.”