So, what do you think the U.S. IT future will be like?

As IBM cuts in U.S., it hires in India
Report: Big Blue plans to bring on 14,000 Indian workers as it proceeds
with U.S., European layoffs.
June 24, 2005: 7:35 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - IBM is planning to hire more than 14,000 new
workers in
India this year, even as the company proceeds with layoffs of up to
13,000
workers in Europe and the United States, the New York Times reported
Friday,
citing an internal company document.

IBM (Research) Senior Vice President Robert Moffat, in an interview
with the
newspaper, said the move is not entirely about cost saving.

"People who say this is simply labor arbitrage don't get it. It's
mostly about
skills," Moffat was quoted as saying.


The buildup in IBM's labor force in India, Moffat told the Times, was
attributable to surging demand for technology services in a thriving
Indian
economy and the opportunity to tap the many skilled Indian software
engineers to
work on projects around the world.

Lower trade barriers and cheaper telecommunications and computing
ability help
allow a distant labor force to work on technology projects, he said in
the report.

"You are no longer competing just with the guy down the street, but
also with
people around the world," he told the Times.

Moffat told the newspaper that IBM is hiring people around the world,
including
many in the United States, in new businesses that the company has
marked for
growth, even as it trims elsewhere.

The company announced last month that it would cut 10,000 to 13,000
jobs, about
a quarter of them in the United States and the bulk in Western Europe,
the
newspaper said.

Critics, however, contend that IBM is a leading example of the
corporate
strategy of shopping the globe for the cheapest labor in a
single-minded pursuit
of profits, to the detriment of wages, benefits and job security in the
U.S. and
in other developed countries, the report said.

Washington-based WashTech, a group that seeks to unionize such workers,
gave the
IBM document labeled "IBM Confidential" on Indian employment to the New
York
Times, the newspaper said.

According to the report, IBM's overall employment in the United States
has held
steady for the last few years, at about 130,000.

The newspaper said IBM declined to comment on the document or the
numbers in it.


Find this article at:
http://money.cnn.com/2005/06/24/news/fortune500/ibm_india/index.htm?cnn=yes