450,000 Tech Jobs gone by 2014!

The Hackett Group recently released a report that says it all: 2.8 million tech jobs have been lost to offshoring sine 2000, and another 1 million will be lost by 2014! The report is based on responses from 3,800 companies based in Europe and North America that annual revenue of 1 billion dollars or more.

We have gone from 4.5 million IT jobs in 2000 to 2.4 million today, and the slide will continue through 2014 when the number will hit 2 million even. These job losses will include Data Center Operators, Application Programmers, Server Admins and DBA’s.

What is the Hackett Group’s advice to those with Tech Jobs in the US and Europe? It is time to come to terms with the fact that the world is going Global and those with IT Jobs will need to enhance their skillsets to compete. Unfortunately this applies only to those that still have jobs when 2014 rolls around.

The offshoring problem is bad enough but add the increasing use of automation and you are going to see tech jobs like Computer Operator, Production Scheduler, and System Admin be completely devastated by these trends. Each of these trends are going to create a demand for Managers that are capbable of managing offshore workers remotely and interfacing with business stakeholders domestically. The problem is for each of these new Management positions created, multiple tech jobs will be lost, resulting in a continued drain of IT jobs away from the U.S. and Europe.

The current crisis in IT Jobs is why I have been advising my fellow IT’ers to start looking at alternative sources of income like Internet Marketing. Internet Marketing will utilize your current skill set while affording you th opportunity ot acquire new skills. Internet Marketing allows you do diversify your income streams so that you are not relying on a single source of income any longer. As you scale up your business you can even outsource some of your tasks to developing countries! Ironic huh?