Remember when offshoring seemed like the biggest threat since Y2K? Today, nary a word about either is uttered. But while Y2K was proven to be the red herring many predicted it would be, offshoring has become a way of life. Want proof? The next time you need hardware support, ask the technician where he or she is sitting. Despite the trend, most of our Feedback Poll respondents (78%) said last week that offshoring affected them much less than was ever hyped. But make no mistake, says commentator Phillips, the trend is growing and spreading. Here's why he says that:

"Offshoring has grown dramatically and it was big three years ago, when we were starting our heavy push into the area. At the time, we made major investments in India and China. Central Europe is another offshoring target but those are the two main areas.

"India was traditionally a back-office function. It was administrative call-center functions and that 's what was driving this initially. And then software development and technology grew there. China has been the world's manufacturer for the past several years. Now you're going to start seeing competition for those manufacturing roles. India can manufacture, and there's no reason companies can't start offshoring manufacturing to India. At the same time, you're starting to see technology jobs go to China. The offshoring trend is not going to stop.

"Our Asia Pacific research group forecasts that China's industrial production is growing by about 20% based on increasing domestic demand as well as exports. Retail sales are expected to grow at double-digit rates.

"We can see the growth of India's economy in its office market. Our India office has found that grade A space in seven major Indian cities has doubled in the past couple of years to about 105 million sf, and an additional 50 million sf is expected to be completed in 2007.

"In terms of JLL employment, we had 5,400 people in China at the end of 2004. By the end of this year it will be 7,300. In India, we went from 530 to 1,400 in that time frame.

"Many companies go to India and china for two reasons. First is to offshore work. But they're also going because those countries are huge consumers. So they go to China to reduce manufacturing costs and also to sell their products. You've got 1.3 billion people in China. If you had every man, woman and child in the US with a cell phone you'd have 300 million. That's a third of the Chinese population. And that's why companies like Motorola are over there."