IBM Plans to Add 15,000 New Jobs Worldwide Jan 19, 2004

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On the heels of strong earnings reports, IBM Corp. announced that it will add 15,000 jobs worldwide.

About 4,500 new hires will be made in the United States, primarily tied to high-growth areas such as software and services, company officials said. The remainder of the jobs will be in emerging markets such as China and India and in Europe.

The job additions were 50 percent more tha company projections and will increase Big Blue's work force to nearly 330,000, officials said. More than half of the company's employees are outside the United States.

Garrett Walker, director of strategic resource management for IBM, said the company is investing U.S. $200 million in training for what it calls "hot skills" in the information technology (IT) area.

"We're bullish on the whole IT market in 2004," Mr. Walker said.

IBM is offering an upbeat outlook for 2004, announcing that fourth-quarter earnings more than doubled and surpassed Wall Street expectations. In the last 3 months of 2003, IBM earned $2.7 billion, or $1.55 per share, on revenue of $25.9 billion.

With the new hirings, IBM will have the most employees it has had since 1991, when it had 344,000 employees worldwide. (Reuters)

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