The great jobs migration.

Might your job--or the one you're seeking--be offshored in 2006? Only if your work could be done by one of the millions of well-educated professionals in China, India, Russia, Mexico, Canada, Romania or any number of smaller, rapidly developing nations that offer Lower labor costs.

Are jobs in your field in jeopardy? Only if you're a programmer, banker, business analyst, lawyer, radiologist, engineer, researcher, consultant, accountant, actuary or architect (of either software or buildings), to name a few professions being outsourced.

Is the offshore handwriting on the wall? Only if your company keeps talking up global sourcing or "building our presence in world markets," or if you work in a could-be-anywhere office park whose only inputs and outputs are worker bees and telecom lines.

Yes, the offshoring of U.S. jobs will continue apace in 2006. Here's why and where it leaves you and your career.

Offshoring Spreads To More Occupations And Countries

In the software and information technology industry--the poster child for offshoring--U.S. spending on global sourcing will reach $18.4 billion in 2006, a 21 percent increase over 2005 and nearly double the 2003 figure, says a study commissioned by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA).

Some companies are trying global sourcing for the first time, while others are scaling up. "Companies are moving from the pilot stage of offshoring to full deployment," says Ron Hira, a professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology.