A new study conducted by American Sentinel University reports that fears about the offshoring of  information technology (IT) jobs from the United States may be largely unfounded.

IT positions requiring advanced degrees and business knowledge are now growing at a pace on par with the boom years experienced in the 1990s, show the study's results.

The study also indicates that the losses caused by offshoring are mostly relegated to low-end occupations that are labor intensive, require little skill, or require little face-to-face contact. According to the study, titled "Offshoring of Information-Technology Jobs: Myths and Realities," most of the job losses that stoked offshoring fears earlier in the decade were "cyclical in nature" and have been recouped.

"Studies from consulting groups during the stagnant job growth years of 2002 to 2004 stoked very pessimistic views of the future for IT professionals," Jeremy Leonard, chief economist at American Sentinel University and author of the study, said in a statement. "Once the current economic expansion took hold, however, we found that the 2000 to 2002 job losses had little, if anything, to do with jobs moving overseas. Software engineers in particular saw a phenomenal turnaround in job fortunes, swinging from 4 percent decline to 25 percent growth."