At a time when Indian IT-BPO companies are watching US President-elect Barack Obama's moves on the outsourcing front, the American companies themselves feel that most of the anti-offshoring talk is pure rhetoric.

A report published in the Economic Times quotes the CEO of a US-based firm as saying that most American companies use the outsourcing model to survive in an era where costs are a crucial factor for acceptability in the market.

The paper quoted GlobalLogic CEO Peter Harrison as saying that people were just overreacting as while parts of the outsourcing industry may have funneled jobs out of the country, most companies have actually added jobs as a result of this trend.

He further clarified that for companies like GlobalLogic that works in the outsourced product development domain, the impact of any tightening of H-1B visa norms will have limited impact as only less than five per cent of their work is done on site.

The report further added that of the top 500 American software companies, more than half use the offshore model to stay competitive. So, when Obama talks about creating jobs in the US, it is not about stopping outsourcing but creating jobs in new areas like green energy.