For years, outsourcing tech work to companies in lower-wage countries was a reliable way for businesses to save money on new tech projects. What’s happening to outsourcing companies now that the downturn has many of these projects on hold? It’s a mixed bag.

The value of the outsourcing deals signed in the third quarter of 2008—when the downturn was apparent, but before things got really bad—was the lowest of any quarter in six years, according to TPI, an outsourcing-consulting company. Only 128 large outsourcing contracts were signed during the quarter of 2008 for a total worth of about $17 billion.

Indian-based companies are preparing for a slowdown in growth. Infosys, one of India’s largest outsourcing companies, says that it has frozen recruitment for all but a few specific jobs. Nasscom, a trade association for Indian-based outsourcing companies, said recently that the rate at which its members would hire new employees would slow for the first time, as would salary increases. (The new numbers would still be the envy of most industries: New hires will dip from 280,000 last year to 200,000 this year; salaries will be up between 7.5% and 9%, down from 13% growth last year, according to Nasscom.)

But even though they’ve stopped hiring and halted new projects, businesses still plan to send work offshore. Fifty-four percent of businesses have cut staff or instituted a hiring freeze, according to a Hackett Group survey of 200 multinational corporations. However, these same businesses report that the percentage of tech jobs that are outsourced will grow from 15.4% in 2008 to 25.1% in 2010.

Add it all together and it means the nature of these deals is changing, says Brian Smith, a partner at TPI. Instead of long contracts for sophisticated services, businesses are signing shorter deals for simpler projects—a small call center dedicated to one product instead of a 100-person shop that services multiple products, for example. Also, with new projects on the decline, more businesses are looking to outsource infrastructure-management tasks, such as monitoring a network, says Smith. It’s not as profitable for outsourcing companies, but it still helps businesses cut staff.