If search is desire to find, then data from Google search shows interest (desire) in offshore software development has decreased and then plateaued in the last three years. Although it might be difficult to determine spending on offshore development, but one might think it would have increased during the all familiar "down sizing" period. Since "cost cutting" is synonymous with down sizing, you would have expected to see more interest in offshore development. And since assumption is that decline in search is indicative of desire, then it doesn't seem much of the offshore development talent has been utilized.
Perhaps it's the abundance of readily available talent at home is the reason. Clearly, the current economic slowdown has shored up much motivation across the development workforce in U.S. I am not suggesting that hourly pay for software development and support in U.S. has plummeted to match that of offshore centers, although in some areas it seems it has. But the cost differentiators have clearly diminished.
Some suggest this to be a temporary situation, bound to the economic health in U.S.
What do you think? Are U.S. companies using more local talent than the 2000-2004 period? Would the tide turn as the economy does?
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