While U.S. firms are laying-off employees, IT outsourcing is doing well on foreign streets. The debate over offshoring has been brewing since a 2002 study by the research group Forrester predicted that 3.3 million white-collar American jobs (including 500,000 IT positions) would move overseas to countries such as India by 2015.

More than 75 percent of major financial institutions send IT work offshore, according to the consulting firm Deloitte, which estimates that offshore technology spending by banks will reach 30 percent of the industry’s $44 billion total annual IT budget by 2010. By 2012, the industry is expected to reach approximately $230 billion globally. Most jobs on the move would be back office positions that can be digitized anywhere worldwide. Plus, routine telephone inquiries are increasingly being bundled together into call centers, making for more offshore telecommunications jobs.

Business process outsourcing (BPO) remains an important part of the IT industry’s sourcing strategies, but its offshore destinations are changing. Today, Wall Street firms are sourcing from around the globe with increasing interest in African countries such as South Africa, Ghana, Egypt, and Kenya.

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