Europe’s Offshoring / 770,000 IT jobs lost in 15 years

Offshoring, technology advancements and low growth have contributed to a massive reduction in IT jobs in Europe, with almost half the number of IT roles in the largest companies expected to exist in 2017 compared to 2002.

According to research from The Hackett Group, in 2002 there were 1.6 million corporate IT jobs in the 3,000 listed European companies with over $1bn revenue, but this is expected to fall by 770,000 in the 15-year period.

The rate of decline could actually be a modest estimate as further economic stagnation will make the figure higher, according to the Hackett report.

“Even this assessment could be optimistic, as it factors in modest job creation due to economic growth. As the IMF and others are now looking at shrinking short-term global growth projections, and more than half of the European Union countries have returned to recession in early 2013, even the modest job creation assumptions in the Hackett model may prove to be overly optimistic,” said the report.

This year alone Hackett predicts 83,000 IT jobs to go in the largest corporates.

“For many people in Europe seeking jobs in corporate IT, our research offers a bleak picture to be sure,” said Rashpal Hullait, managing director at The Hackett Group.

“The evolving offshore job market and the maturing of global business services operations has simply eliminated many of the jobs that used to exist in IT, and a similar thing is happening in finance and other business services areas.”

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at 

via 770,000 IT jobs lost in Europe in 15 years.