Study Downplays Outsourcing of Computer Jobs

The outsourcing of computing positions in the U.S. poses a significant economic and scientific challenge, but it may not be as big of a deal as it has been made out to be.

According to a new study from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), to be released today, the concern—even panic—associated with the shipment of computing work aboard is mostly unfounded, The New York Times reports.

The study says that predictions regarding job losses as a result of shifting high-technology work overseas to low-income countries with thriving educational systems, like China and India, have been greatly exaggerated, The Times reports.

The ACM found that more than likely the U.S. will see 2 percent to 3 percent of its IT jobs shifted overseas annually over the next decade, according to The Times; however, as long as the U.S. continues to increase the value of work it’s performing, the number of jobs created will far outweigh the positions that are shifted.

The study also found that IT hiring is higher today than it was during the peak of the dotcom boom, The Times reports.

“The global competition has gotten tougher and we have to run faster,” Moshe Y Vardi, co-chair of the study group and Rice University computer scientist, told The Times.  “But the notion that information technology jobs are disappearing is just nonsense.”

Yet the President of the ACM, David A. Patterson, stressed to The Times that though jobs may not be disappearing, the number of American college students majoring in computer science is dwindling. Patterson cited a survey from last year that found only 1 in 75 college students majored in computer science in 2005, compared to 1 in 30 in 2000.

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