Infosys, an Indian Outsourcing Company, Says It Will Create 10,000 U. S. Jobs -
By VINDU GOEL and PAUL MOZURMAY 2, 2017
SAN FRANCISCO — Facing new corporate demands and political pressure from a Trump administration
that wants to curb immigrant work visas, Infosys, one of India’s leading tech outsourcing companies, said Tuesday that it will hire up to 10,000 Americans to serve its clients in the United States.
“If the Indian companies are not able to get the skills
that are needed in the U. S. and not bring in skilled workers from somewhere else, then the only option is to move the job out of the United States or leave the job undone,” he said.
The majority of Infosys’s business is in the United States,
and it typically receives several thousand H-1B visas every year to bring in mostly entry-level Indian programmers who move from project to project at companies in industries like banking, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and energy.
“Our objective was to make sure that a well-thought-out process was put in place,” said R. Chandrashekhar, president of the National Association of Software
and Services Companies, India’s leading tech trade group, in a phone interview after Mr. Trump’s executive order.
Like American tech companies, the Indian outsourcers have trouble finding enough qualified Americans to fill jobs, he said.
The move makes Infosys the latest Asian technology company to portray itself as a jobs creator as
President Trump threatens to take action against companies he sees as hurting American workers.
Critics say that companies like Infosys have taken advantage of the H-1B program, which is designed to complement
the American skilled labor force, by bringing in workers who ultimately undercut it by taking lower wages.