US Giant IBM Hires More In US Than India Due To Shift In Tax And Visa Norms

For over a decade IBM’s hiring was focused more on India with a drastic cut in jobs in the US. This was done in an effort to be in the race with other Indian IT companies. But now there seems to be a marked shift with the Big Blue changing its ‘hiring tracks’! The company has increased its hiring in US goaded by Obama’s new social and tax norms and also a change in US work visa restrictions.

Jobs at IBM in its website lists more in the US (2150 of them) while jobs in India for the company lags at 700 and China pegged at 650. Entry level positions advertised in its site showed more than 40% of them reserved for US citizens.

The US Immigration Bill seeks to selectively apply visa restrictions on Indian IT and US based businesses that have branches in India. The United States Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernaisation Bill 2013 is yet to be enacted, however the repercussions of the Bill seem to have preceded it. Drastic job cuts, layoffs and handing over of pink-slips have taken over many multi nationals in the country.

Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that, ‘these restrictions, including language negatively impacts Indian companies on important issues such as non-displacement and wage level classification. This is not only discriminatory but also creates an unequal playing field for Indian IT companies’. Source:  Economic Times