Houston, Nov 24: IT jobs will continue to migrate overseas at a faster pace due to lower costs, but much of the work will still be captured by US providers as they beef up their operations abroad. While the mainstream media has seized upon the threat of offshore sourcing to US jobs, a new report from the IDC finds that such a dramatic shift may not necessarily translate into a doomed outlook for US IT services jobs or US-based services firms.

Market research firm IDC on Thursday predicted that offshore activities of the US information technology industry are set to rise dramatically over the next four years, but the rise may not affect US jobs adversely as some industry observers feared.
After surveying it vendors, IDC concludes that US services firms will continue to use offshore resources due to lower costs while the majority of US workers at risk will leverage their current expertise into new skills that will remain in demand.
The research firm predicts that offshore spending component of the us technology services market will rise to 10 per cent of the total spending, or USD 16.3 billion, in 2003. IDC also expects offshore spending to more than quadruple to USD 46 billion, or 23 per cent of the total, by 2007.

IT outsourcing to locations such as India, China and Russia has been criticised in the United States because of fears about the potential loss of technology jobs, but IDC analysts say the debate is misplaced. Bureau Report