The premier information technology body in the United States, Information Technology Association of America, has said that not more than 7 to 9 per cent of all IT jobs would move out of the US in the next 10-15 years.
"Even the most optimistic people on outsourcing believe that not more than 7 to 9 per cent of all IT jobs will move out of the US. It (all jobs) can't move outside the US, because there are many issues for it," ITAA president Harris Miller told IT industry leaders at the National Association of Software and Service Companies' CEO forum in Bangalore on Tuesday night.
Pointing to the backlash in the US against outsourcing as a combination of politics and lack of awareness on the advantages of globalisation, he said continued unemployment of IT workers was also a cause for concern.
Asserting that the US IT industry was on the recovery path with growth projections at 3 to 4 per cent in the next one year, Miller said, however it had not resulted in job gains to the American people.
"One piece that has been missing is job recovery, unemployment is at 6 per cent and IT unemployment is above 6 per cent as compared to zero three years back," he said.
Quoting US Department of Commerce statistics, Miller said IT spending in August to September 2003, was up by 15.4 per cent as against flat spending in the previous quarters.
Miller said the "arrogance" of the American industry misled it to believe that it would control the software industry in the world, but did not anticipate competing nations like India, Ireland, Russia and Israel among others.
"This was the same arrogance which led to the Japanese conquer the American auto market in the sixties," he said.
India has earned a reputation in the US as a good software producer, but the image of the country is not good when it is compared to a big consumer market like China.
"When you talk about China, they (Americans) say it is a huge market with 1.3 billion population whereas India's image is as a good software producer. They don't know that India has one billion population and growing middle class consumers," Miller said.
Indian IT associations along with the industry and government should project the country in the US as a potential market, and not just as a software provider, he added.
Commonwealth of Virginia Secretary of Technology George C Newstrom said there were over 300,000 people who were jobless in the US.
"US companies are showing a revival in profits. But, what we are not seeing the end result is the growth in jobs," he said, adding the present crisis "just hadn't been" seen in the US IT sector.
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