Exclusive: Gartner Predicts Huge Increase In Offshore Outsourcing By 2015

Informationweek
Report to be released next week says 30% of IT jobs in developed countries will be "offshored" by 2015.By Paul McDougall InformationWeek

A leading industry research firm says in an upcoming report that the number of information technology jobs outsourced to low-cost countries such as India and China is just a trickle compared with what's going to happen over the next 10 years. Gartner says less than 5% of IT jobs in the United States and other developed countries are currently "offshored." By 2015, however, that number will rise to 30%. "It's a tectonic shift," says Gartner analyst Frances Karamouzis, the report's author. The figures cover work that will be exported not only from the United States but from other developed countries as well. Gartner's research will be unveiled formally Monday at its outsourcing conference in Los Angeles. InformationWeek has obtained an exclusive advance look at the report. Despite the magnitude of the shift, Karamouzis says she doesn't believe offshoring will result in a net loss of IT jobs in the United States. "There are a lot of people who are currently programmers who could transition to higher-level positions where you need to be close to the customer," she says.
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