All things considered, this has been a successful week for the outsourcing community, with a spate of newly signed projects and announcements arriving in all of our inboxes on a daily basis to warm the cockles of even the most hardened doom-and-gloom monger.

Don’t believe us? Well, take the announcement by BT that it had been awarded a contract by Nationwide to provide managed security services as an example.

Or even the engineering management contract signed this week by Meggitt with HCL or, come to think of it, the record 2nd quarter results announced by leading provider of information technology, consulting and business process outsourcing, Cognizant.

But before you start putting up the bunting, balloons and flags to celebrate the end of all your financial woes, it’s worth sparing a thought for those less fortunate. This week, the Co-operative announced that it was bringing 36 IT roles back in-house following its acquisition last year of supermarket chain Somerfield.

The roles relate to helpdesk and store systems support, with the company opting to re-create jobs previously outsourced by Somerfield.

Further proof, were it needed, that our economic woes are not yet at an end, came with the news that cancelled public sector contracts could precipitate a Double Dip Recession.

Although that may sound like an exciting new ride at Alton Towers, we’re fairly sure that it’s much, much longer, and far less exciting, so perhaps a little perspective is no bad thing.