The Wall Street Journal on April 12 said that the most-quoted research company is virtually retracting its estimates that some 3.3 million U.S. jobs would be lost by 2015 due to off shoring and outsourcing.

In the midst of the political storm the offshor-ing debate has created in election year, and the public relations problems with India including Washington’s pressure on New Delhi to further relax tariffs andmarkets, this retraction sho-uld give pause for thought to the Kerry campaign’s stand on outsourcing and offshoring, which has lost him several Silicon Valley supporters.

Just as companies may move some jobs to India, so some foreign companies move jobs into the United States, says the article entitled ‘Behind Outsourcing Debate: Surprisingly Few Hard Numbers,’ by staff reporter Jon Hilsenrath.

Occasionally, the beneficiaries of “insourcing” remain uncounted, and the benefits of cheaper goods for Americans are not calculated in the face of the more emotional job loss examples, The Journal notes, even though the U.S. has been moving jobs overseas for decades. Now that it is hitting high-paid jobs, a more vocal minority is making its voice heard in election-year politics.

According to some estimates, about 100,000 white-collar jobs go abroad, but this is small baring the size of the labor market in mind and compared to loss of jobs for other reasons, The Journal contends.

Meanwhile, John McCarthy, the researcher who came up with the number of 3.3 million jobs being shipped offshore, says his report that made the frontpage in BusinessWeek, was not kosher. “Mr. McCarthy now says his numbers were hyped and that it “makes me a little mad.” He says the projected loss of jobs and income will occur over a number of years, mostly later in the decade.

To date, he says, the actual number of white-collar jobs that have moved offshore is less than 300,000. That equals only about 0.2% of the total job market in any given year,” according to The Journal. “He refers to the increased attention on Indian companies as ‘this call center baloney’.”

The International Data Corp., another market research firm that came up with off-shoring numbers now says their research was flawed, The Journal says. The IDC had concluded last year after surveying eight executives at technology service firms, that some 23 percent of all white-collar tech jobs will go offshore by 2007. Again, this number was picked up by most leading media outlets, including The Journal which quotes an IDC spokesman Michael Shirer as saying the methodology in the report was “a little wobbly” and the number probably an overestimate.

“There is a great deal of partial telling of the story,” The Journal quotes University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School Management Professor Jitendra Singh saying. “It is understandable given the political season that we are in.”