Over
the past decade, IBM hired frenetically in India, and cut jobs in the
US in an effort to be cost competitive with Indian IT services
providers. Now, the Big Blue appears to be changing track, goaded
perhaps by the Obama administration's social and tax pressures, and the
US work visa restrictions.
However,
other global IT services companies like Ireland-registered Accenture
and France-based Capgemini are continuing to keep their hiring focus on
India.
IBM's
'Jobs at IBM' website currently lists about 6,750 jobs, of which nearly
a third, 2,150, are in the US. India follows way behind at a little
over 700, and China is third with about 650. More striking are the entry
level positions. Of the total of 446 entry level positions open as on
September 2, as many as 172, or nearly 40%, are in the US. In India,
there are a mere five.
An
employee of the company in India said the internal job portal now shows
certain IT positions with 1-2 years' experience reserved for US
citizens. "I can't recollect such entry level positions earlier being
reserved for US citizens," he said.
When
contacted, IBM did not directly address the matter, but issued the
following statement: "Managing resources and skills is an ongoing and
critical component of our business model. IBM continues to meet the
changing requirements of its clients, and to pioneer new, high value
segments of the IT industry. To that end, IBM is positioning itself to
lead in growth areas such as cloud, analytics and cognitive computing
and investing in these priority areas. Investing in and hiring talent
from over 100 college campuses in India continues to be part of the
strategy."
US
tech entrepreneur and academic Vivek Wadhwa said he would not know if
the IBM hiring trends were accurate, but said it would not surprise him.
"IBM, like other US companies, is surely under pressure from nativists
to hire more Americans. The noise is only getting louder. But it may be
that IBM is trying to balance its growth and that is what is behind such
a strategy," he said.
The years of frenzied hiring has resulted in India now accounting for over a third of IBM's 4.3 lakh employees (these are estimates, given that IBM has stopped disclosing its headcount by geography). In the US, the number has dropped from a peak of 1.53 lakh in 2000, to an estimated 88,000 now.
Source: The Times of India
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