Tech Watch | InfoWorld Staff » Study adds more fuel to the outsourcing fire

November 02, 2005 | Comments: (0)

Study adds more fuel to the outsourcing fire

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A new report that says offshore outsourcing lowers production costs for IT vendors and leads to creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs is being attacked by the Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA (IEEE-USA), an association for U.S. IT workers.

The study, by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), says 337,000 jobs will be created by 2010 as a byproduct of offshoring, IDG News Service reported.

Ron Hira, chairman of the IEEE-USA's research and development policy committee, said laid off workers don't find new jobs easily as the study seems to assume.

Coupled with recent efforts by the ITAA and several tech vendors for the U.S. to increase the number of foreign workers allowed under H-1B visas, IT workers in the U.S. are under siege, Hira said.

The bottom line, "is that U.S. software workers are losers," he said. "And ITAA continues to undercut U.S. software workers by arguing for more H-1Bs."

Infoworld's Ephraim Schwartz, in his Reality Check column, recently outlined arguments that said tech vendors are chiefly interested in paying low wages when they seek foreign workers.

Posted by Jack McCarthy on November 2, 2005 03:18 PM

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