IT jobs 'not hit by offshore outsourcing'

More IT jobs are available in the US today than at the height of the dot-com boom despite the impact of offshore outsourcing, according to a new study.

The wide-ranging research by US IT industry body the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) found that while the annual job-loss rate attributable to offshore outsourcing is around two to three per cent of the IT workforce in the US, there is a much higher level of job creation.

Citing US Bureau of Labour Statistics, the ACM research also said IT jobs are predicted to be among the fastest-growing occupations in the US over the next decade.

The report said: "Current data and economic theory suggest that despite offshoring, career opportunities in IT will remain strong in the countries where they have been strong in the past even as they grow in the countries that are targets of offshoring."

But the study also backs other analyst and industry predictions of a 20 to 30 per cent growth rate in offshoring by global corporations and predicts the type of work sent overseas will move beyond low-end software development work to higher-end computing research.

The advice for students and IT workers looking to improve their chances of long-term employment in IT occupations is to get a strong foundational education, keep skills up to date, develop good teamwork and communication skills and become familiar with other cultures.

The ACM task force behind the study consisted of computer scientists, labour economists, social scientists and IT vendors including Dell, IBM and Intel.