Bleak news for finance jobs in US and Europe

The economic growth that is taking us out of the financial crisis is being described by many as the 'jobless recovery' for Europe and US as vast numbers of jobs continue to move to lower-cost countries. Research by The Hackett Group suggests this trend is unlikely to end anytime soon for functions such as corporate finance and IT.

The wave of jobs going to India or other low-cost offshore locations has accelerated over recent years. The report, 'Global Business Services: Redefining the Enterprise Engine', finds that close to 1.1m jobs in corporate finance, IT and other business functions were lost at large US and European companies in 2008 and 2009. Looking forward, a further 1.3m are expected to follow suit by 2014.

The total number jobs lost to offshoring in corporate finance is expected to grow by a compound annual rate of about 20% between 2010 and 2014. For finance, this will be the first time that this figure will surpass that for IT.

"With the modest resumption of economic growth this year, policymakers throughout the industrialised world have been struggling to create jobs," said Michel Janssen, Chief Research Officer for The Hackett Group. "But our research shows that across key business functions, their efforts are simply being overwhelmed by offshoring and other factors. This is what's driving the jobless recovery we're seeing in key white-collar job categories, and it's likely to continue for the foreseeable future."