Silicon Valley loses IT jobs to the countryside

NEVER MIND India, the US IT industry is looking closer to home for its outsourcing.

According to CBS, the latest employment trend is seeing America's IT companies moving to quiet rural areas.

Dubbed "farm shoring", the trend has seen two major IT firms, CGI-AMS and Northrop-Grumman, move some of their IT operations to the small town of Lebanon which has a population of 3,300. It also follows Daimler Chrysler hiring Lakota Express to do its Web design, which it is sending to a South Dakota Indian reservation. Dell is now shipping some of its work to Twin Falls, Idaho.

Of course it is seen as a drop in the bucket in comparison to the number of jobs which US firms are packing off to China and India. Most of the reason seems to be the cost of setting up shop in the smaller cheaper towns, rather than labour costs, which are only slightly lower.

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