Offshoring Isn't All Bad. It Spurs New Job Creation, Study Finds.Offshoring Isn't All Bad. It Spurs New Job Creation, Study Finds.

Offshore outsourcing is projected to grow over the next decade, but so are U.S. IT job opportunities. And many of the new jobs will come from businesses that companies launch as they achieve cost savings from outsourcing, according to a study by the Association for Computing Machinery, a group focused on advancing computing as a science and profession.

IT opportunities are expected to grow in higher-skill areas such as software engineering, application development, and research and development. But an infrastructure is needed that provides training, education, and increased investment in R&D, along with government policies that "eliminate barriers to the free flow of talent," the study says.

Expanding the U.S. talent pool is critical. Job growth prospects could be squandered unless more young Americans enter the tech profession, says Moshe Vardi, a professor of computer science at Rice University and co-chair of the task group that produced the report.

The number of new students enrolling in U.S. undergrad computer science programs fell from a peak of 25,000 in 2000 to 12,500 in 2004, Vardi says. Without a pool of talent from which companies can fill IT jobs, the migration of those jobs offshore could be a self-fulfilling prophecy, Vardi says.

Sun Microsystems is among Silicon Valley employers finding it tough to fill highly skilled tech jobs. Says Kim Jones, Sun's VP of global education and research: "It's getting harder to find people with a solid education plus critical skill sets."