The resistance to outsourcing of jobs in the US may continue even after the November presidential elections, a representative of the United States' IT industry said in Chennai on Friday.

There was also a strong possibility of the US insurance industry halting all outsourcing because clients had expressed fears that foreign countries would get access to "sensitive data" through outsourcing, Harris Miller, president, Information Technology Association of America, said.

Outsourcing and India: Complete Coverage

He said outsourcing was good for the US industry in the long run; a study commissioned by ITAA recently had found that the US economy would gain net new jobs of 3,17,367 by the year 2008 due to offshore ITO (IT outsourcing).

In 2003, Miller said, the US created 90,264 net new jobs due to offshore ITO.

"It's all about going global. Companies simply are not going to succeed if they think they could do without it (offshore ITO)," Miller said at a speech organised by National Association of Software and Service Companies of India. "Most industries are going to gain new jobs through offshore ITOs."

On the H-1B visa issue, Miller said the ITAA was trying its best to persuade the government to relax norms by not including PhDs among the H-1B visa quotas. "If you block the entry of workers through lower H-1B visa limit, more jobs would go offshore," he said.