Everyone says that IT work (the technical stuff like programming, etc) is always outsourced to India because the cost of living there is less, and thus the price of work (especially be freelancers) is therefore a lot less than someone doing the work in a developed country like the UK/USA. Being Indian myself (but living in the UK), I can vouch for the cost of living being less in India.
Do you therefore worry that the work we do and the number of jobs available is at risk?
My view is that there is more to choosing a supplier of solutions than just the cost. Companies in India may be cheaper but my dad works for an airline who is set to make its first loss in several years. They get work done by a company quite local to me (5 miles away), where I went for an interview a few weeks ago. This company (a startup too) probably charges more to ensure they make a profit. So if a loss-making company is choosing a supplier who is likely to set a higher price, then there is more at stake than getting work done by a company in a country with a low cost of living.
However, what is the freelance market like?
Also, I guess sometimes you need a coder who is physically onsite and at hand. It will be annoying and, in big companies, a major problem if you have some technical issue but have to wait 10 hours for the country on the other side of the world to wake up to fix the problem. Time is money. Am I right to think that server admin work is less outsourced? I say this because that line of work probably involves physical interaction with the server boxes, which obviously can't be done overseas.
Interestingly, there is now a lot of disruption about our jobs being given to workers from abroad who would settle for a lower wage, which is an important issue given unemployment rates/recession etc. It would be stupid to create more jobs and they are taken by legal immigrents.
However, a search of programming jobs in London results in thousands, but only 100 for accounting jobs (a profession which can be easily outsourced because I don't see where the need for a physical accountant is required).
What's your view? Is this a reason to worry about the safety of your job?