IT Inc claims to create jobs in US

Far from taking away US jobs, Indian IT companies are actually creating huge employment in the US. In fact, dismissing US president Barack Obama's argument that Indian IT companies are responsible for rising unemployment, these companies say it is the shortage of talent in the US that is forcing them import talent from India. "The fact that we are not contributing to the US economy is totally baseless. The Indian IT companies have created about 2,50,000 jobs in the US in the last three years and most of them are high paid jobs," said Ameet Nivsarkar, vice-president (global trade), the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom). According to Nivsarkar, the advantage is not just in terms of cost but also in terms of knowledge base and a large talent pool that is available in India. US has a scarcity of talent base. According to commerce minister Anand Sharma, in August itself Indian IT companies created 7,000 jobs in the US but the recent protectionist measures taken by the US, such as hiking professional visa fees, could hamper such economic activities. Infosys employs around 12,000 people in North America, including about 1,300 US citizens and permanent residents. The company announced that it is planning to hire 1,000 more US locals during this fiscal. TCS has hired about 1,350 people in the US recently and is planning to hire more. However, Indian IT companies are citing talent crunch in the US as one of the reasons for importing workforce from India. " Those who say that we do not hire because of the cost factor, are wrong. At present the salary of Indian IT professional is at par with the US, especially post recession. But even we are willing we find it difficult to get high skill professionals," said a senior HR manager from Infosys. 1 2 Next »