More information-technology jobs will be created in the next four years, about three times faster than the projected rate of worldwide general employment, according to a Microsoft-commissioned study.

"It shows there will be significant job growth in the IT sector," said Microsoft corporate vice president Pamela Passman. "Even though IT growth will be muted there will still be significant growth. Software will grow even faster."

Microsoft hired research firm IDC to do a study on the economic impact of information, software and the Microsoft ecosystem worldwide, which it released late Sunday night. The company uses the study for government lobbying.

"It's helpful in getting people to focus on the human capital needs," Passman said. "Like investing in STEM education -- science, technology, engineering, math. This demonstrates the jobs will be there. ... We have a shortage in people with these skills. We have some of the strongest universities in the world. In most of the computer science departments, 50 to 60 percent are foreign nationals."

Here are some findings from the IDC study for Microsoft:

• IT spending, estimated at $1.4 trillion in 2009, is projected to rise $1.7 trillion in 2013.
• IT employment should increase by 5.8 million jobs by the end of 2013, compared to the current base of 35.6 million. That growth would be three times the rate of general employment growth worldwide. The area with the fastest predicted growth is central and eastern Europe.
• Microsoft-related jobs, such as IT professionals who maintain Microsoft software and people who work at hardware and software companies that build off Microsoft products, made up 42 percent of IT employment in 2009.
• For every dollar Microsoft made in sales in 2009, the partner companies make $8.70. Overall, those partner companies are expected to invest $180 billion in local economies in 2009.
• Microsoft estimates cloud computing, the migration from on-site software to software accessed via the Internet, will create $800 billion in net new sales dollars between now and 2013.

Speaking of economic-impact studies, here is my favorite story on the economic-impact studies commissioned by the Sonics owners, who first argued the basketball team's economic impact would be worth $170 million in Oklahoma, then zero dollars if the team stayed in Seattle when they were trying to get out of a KeyArena lease with the city of Seattle.