Forrester Research predicts that "at least 3.3 million white-collar jobs and $136 billion in wages will shift from the U.S. to low-cost countries by 2015." More specific to the readers of this column, Gartner estimates that "[b]y the end of 2004, one out of every 10 jobs with U.S.-based IT vendors and IT service providers will move to emerging markets ..., as will one out of every 20 IT jobs within user enterprises."

It's happening to American employees constantly. Jobs are leaving the US for India, the Phillipines, Russia, China, Hungary, Costa Rica, Bulgaria, South Africa, Ireland. In India, a worker at a call center earns about $2,700 each year, while a new graduate with a degree in IT will make around $5,000. A Chinese IT professsional earns about 1/6 of what an American IT worker makes.

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