Bangalore: The number of jobs moving out of the United States would increase from 0.6 million in 2005 to 1.6 million in 2010 and 3.3 million in 2015, Forrester Research Inc group director John McCarthy said.

"The number of US service jobs moving out of the country would only rise in the coming years," McCarthy told Information Technology (IT) honchos on October 8 night at a talk organised by the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM).

He said the outsourcing would take US jobs in the short term, but eventually technology would eliminate lot of clerical jobs in the long run.

"The movement of jobs would be to low cost countries and top of the list is India, from where nearly 85 per cent of the outsourcing is done," McCarthy later told reporters.

Stating that the prices of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) would drastically fall in the next few years, he said Indian firms had opportunities to run BPO outfits in niche areas where they can maintain profitability.

Assuming that the price for BPO contract in 2000 was about $ 100, the next 10 years would see the price fall to $ 43, McCarthy said, adding that it was a very conservative estimate.

He said the steepest fall would occur during what he called the "reengineering/offshore phase" from 2004 to 2007.

BPO vendors, on the other hand, would be competing to establish themselves and bring down the prices aggressively, McCarthy said.

PTI