Engineers across the globe have accepted--or perhaps resigned themselves to--the reality of offshore outsourcing, and many praise its value. "Outsourcing is great, as it saves costs and enables a company to do more than it otherwise would," one engineer said. Many participants in the "EE Times 2006 State of the Engineer Survey" agreed.

Most respondents worldwide said their jobs were unaffected by offshoring over the last 12 months, even though a higher percentage said their employers sent design work offshore than in the 2005 survey. Surprisingly, 34 percent of employers in India--a top destination for outsourced work from the United States--sent design work offshore last year, including high-end hardware design (39 percent), high-end software development (21 percent) and low-end software development (15 percent).

Like engineers elsewhere, EEs in India cited some benefits of offshore outsourcing. Forty-four percent said it saves total development costs, 41 percent said it reduces unit costs and shaves time off a project, and 33 percent said it improves time-to-market. In the United States, 44 percent said it reduces unit costs, as did 50 percent in Japan and 58 percent in Europe. Other benefits were cited in each region.

Some respondents said outsourcing is affecting compensation or putting jobs at risk. "It may cause salaries to become stagnant," one engineer said.

"It has reduced my USA compensation level to that of a Third World country," said another. "It has forced me into bankruptcy and destroyed my family."

Yet 77 percent of U.S. respondents said outsourcing has had no discernible effect on their jobs, and European engineers placed outsourcing low on the list of factors affecting their jobs. In India, 37 percent of respondents said offshore outsourcing has increased their job responsibilities, but a majority said it has not changed their duties.

One respondent said outsourcing would have "no negative effect" on skilled engineers; those hurt would be "those not able to innovate as readily, or who perform more mundane tasks."

-- Nicolas Mokhoff