IBM adding to BRIC headcount

Big Blue is adding to its global headcount, according to a Monday Wall Street Journal article.

The article states that IBM Corp. is growing its headcount in emerging markets like India and China, with its total work force in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) approaching 100,000 employees by the end of the year, up from about 85,000 at the end of 2006 out the total 355,000 people IBM employed then.

Calls to IBM for comment were not returned to EDN. But it doesn’t take a returned call to confirm the reported 15,000-headcount adjustment suggest outsourcing trends, which the WSJ touches on, and also proves the value IBM puts in these emerging markets. IBMhas laid out a roadmap for its growth in the BRIC countries and while its growth here in the United States has been in the low single digits for some time, due to saturation, growth in some BRIC countries has exceeded 30%. IBM has paid extra attention as of late to India, where it told the Associated Press last week that it expects to see revenue from the market jump to nearly $1 billion this year, from $700 million in 2006.

Hirings and, unfortunately, firings are often the subject of news headlines around this time of the year as companies look to cut costs and plan out costs for Q1. I suspect we’ll see a few industry players make announcements next week as the year draws to a close.

Meanwhile,  engineering job hunting is also on our blog radar here at EDN. So much so that we’re following a real-life engineering job search as experienced by our unemployed guest blogger Bill Betts. Readers are encouraged to share their own experiences and job-hunting advice with other engineers facing career and job changes in today’s high-tech industries. Check out “Hire Ground” here and share any comments on IBM below.

–Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News