Our ancestors came here, the golden shores of America, their grandchildren and great-grandchildren are heading out. From USA Today: More U.S. job hunters look for work in other countries

Here’s one way to deal with the brutal U.S. job market: Leave the country.

With the nation’s unemployment rate at a 26-year-high of 10.2%, more Americans are hunting for, and landing, work overseas, according to staffing companies and executive search firms.

Jeff Joerres, CEO of Manpower, the No. 1 U.S. staffing company, says about 500 clients are seeking jobs abroad, up from a few dozen six months ago.

“It suddenly looks like there may be better opportunities outside the U.S.,” Joerres says. “It is a phenomenon we haven’t had before.”

While the number of globe-trotting job candidates is still relatively small, the trend reverses a longtime pattern of far more foreign workers seeking jobs in the U.S., Joerres says.

Fifty-four percent of executives said they’d be likely or highly likely to accept a foreign post, according to a survey of 114 executives Friday by talent management company Korn/Ferry. Just 37% of those surveyed in 2005 said they’d go abroad.

The hottest international job markets include India, China, Brazil, Dubai and Singapore, recruiters say. International companies are largely seeking candidates in engineering, computer technology, manufacturing, investment banking and consulting.

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Steve Watson, chairman of executive search firm Stanton Chase International, says he recently sought a CEO for a Dubai manufacturer, and “three or four people quickly raised their hands. I do not think we would have had that two years ago.”

After completing his junior year at Georgia Institute of Technology, Charles Wang, an industrial engineering major, worked as a project manager for United Parcel Service in Dubai from July 2008 until last May. His task: develop a delivery system for the Arab state’s first-ever network of streets and addresses. After graduating next month, he plans to return to Dubai for a permanent job.

It’s “because of … my inability to find good jobs in the U.S.,” says Wang, 22, adding he’ll stay in Dubai until the U.S. job market is “back to normal.”

At MIT’s Sloan School of Management, 24% of 2009 graduates got jobs overseas, up from 19% last year. It’s “tied to the (U.S.) economy,” says career development head Jackie Wilbur.