A research report by Hackett Group reveals that there has been a decline in nearly 300,000 IT jobs  in 2009. This implies job losses in the sector of about 2 million from 2010-2014.

In an online report by ZDNET the research group was cited as saying there were huge cut backs in back office jobs and this has hit the IT industry badly. Most of these jobs are typically  outsourced to Asia with the top outsourcers located in India, Philippines, and China. In 2009, Hackett says more than half a million IT jobs will be swept away from global firms.

Hackett describes this as an “extended jobless recovery” phase in sectors like finance, HR, IT, procurement and general and administrative (G&A)  jobs.

The research group revealed the figures after examining four thousand firms world wide. All of these companies also reported net revenues of $1 billion. The reason for these are easily identifiable says Hackett, attributing them to companies keen on improving profit losses. Other factors included offshoring, outsourcing and process improvements.

Hackett’s analysis of these publicly held companies polled showed that due to increased efficiency and gains from process improvement, automation, offshoring and outsourcing, G&A tasks were $333 billion less in 2007, in comparison to 2000. Nonetheless, these efficiencies have been accompanied by a loss of jobs in the G&A segment - 1.4 million back office jobs.

These job losses took place despite  the 2.2 percent annual growth that was observed. This growth has put aside some of the drawbacks from the job losses, says Hackett. Although the trend before the recession showed a move toward a knowledge-based, industrialized job prospects, the downturn in the economy seems to have upset this system, according to Hackett.