The UK is leading the way in offshoring financial services jobs, according to a report by Forrester Research.
It said Europe would lose a cumulative 1.2 million jobs to offshore locations by 2015, with the bulk of them coming from UK companies.
Computing and clerical departments in Europe would see the most job losses, said the report.
Forrester Research also said Europe would divide into three levels of offshoring, with the UK leading the way with the highest level of offshored jobs in 2015.
By 2015, the company predicted that 760,000 UK jobs would have been offshored to locations such as India and Russia. In contrast, Germany will see only 140,000 jobs offshored by 2015.
But the report said countries such as Germany, Italy and France, which currently have a fairly low level of offshoring, would see increasing number of jobs transferred to new markets from 2008 onwards.
Other European nations such as Ireland, Greece, Spain and Portugal, would not follow the UK trend in offshoring as firms there show a much lower tendency to use outsourced services, said Forrester.
These nations were also low cost IT offshoring destinations themselves, the company added.
Looking at the financial services industry specifically, Forrester Research said: “We estimate that financial services firms in Europe today drive approximately 30% of all offshore services spending, and will likely move approximately the same percentage of all jobs that go offshore from Europe.
“That means that 2004 will see some 24,000 financial services jobs displaced offshore from Europe, of which approximately 17,000 will be UK-based.
“This impact will grow to reach a cumulative total of more than 350,000 financial services jobs displaced across Europe by 2015.”
