This report provides an overview of ICT skills and employment across OECD economies and analyses some of the impacts on economic performance. It presents a new approach to capturing the diffusion of ICTs in the economy.

This report examines the statistical relationship between the share of employment potentially affected by ICT-enabled offshoring of services and other economic and structural developments, using some simple descriptive regressions on a panel of OECD economies between 1996 and 2003.

This report, part of the 2004 OECD IT Outlook, is the first in a series looking at the distribution of ICT skilled employment in the economy, various ways in which ICT skills needs can be satisfied, and the role of ICT-skilled employment in international services sourcing, or offshoring.