Stop Offshoring
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
A Forrester Research report predicts that while IT spending and staffing will continue to grow, the offshoring option will keep a lid on hiring in the U.S. This is also my response to those who believe that offshoring will not hurt Americans once the economy improves. My argument has always been, why would companies that are dumb enough to offshore to incompetent workers in places such as India stop doing so when their profits rise? Wouldn't they plow more money into what they perceive as cheaper labor, rather than staff up in the U.S.? Unless companies wake up to the poor quality of their offshore workers (and some have), the picture for American workers will continue to be gloomy.
A quote from the report: "... the offshore option means that companies will hire fewer new IT workers than they would have in the past. Meanwhile, product development jobs at IT vendors, which led the revival in hiring during 2003 and 2004, will slump in 2006 and 2007 as vendors more aggressively take advantage of lower-cost offshore resources."
