Businesses may be investing in IT at the expense of hiring employees, a Forrester Research analyst has suggested.

In a report entitled “IT Investment May Be Hurting US Job Growth”, Andrew Bartels observes that while IT investment by US businesses rose 11% in 2010, and profits grew 28%, employment was flat. “It certainly appears that businesses have been buying technology instead of hiring workers.

Bartel said: “This pattern was most pronounced in manufacturing industries like mining, forestry products, fabricated metals, motor vehicles, and machinery. In a quarter of industries, tech investment rose by 7% on average while employment was down by 2% on average.”