IBM: 15,000 New Hires...3,000 of them in "Developing Nations"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

This news item should be bookmarked as rebuttal material when discussing our "booming, sizzling, explosive" economic recovery.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=580&e=2&u=/nm/20040117/bs_nm/tech_ibm_dc

Quotes:

"About 30 percent of the 15,000 new positions, or 4,500 jobs, will be net new hires in the United States"

"IBM Chief Financial Officer John Joyce described 2004 on Thursday as "the year when the IT industry will begin its next growth cycle."

Joyce did not specify the country in which his prediction will come true. Note that he did not say "the US IT industry."

End of quotes. You can bet that the Bush administration will hold up that 15,000 number...not the 4,500...as well as Joyce's sound bite. How convenient...just in time for the State of the Union address and its focus on "jobs, jobs, jobs."

And in the ultimate spin / act of deception, pay close attention to this quote:

""We are going to hire more in the U.S. than we shift" overseas, MacDonald said in an interview."

That's Randy MacDonald, IBM's senior vice president for human resources. He's telling the truth, but do the math:

15,000 new hires - 4,500 US hires = 10,500 non-US hires

10,500 non-US hires = 3,000 "developing nations" hires = 7,500 "unspecified" (but still non-US)

So if they hire 10,500 non-US employees and shift 4,499 jobs overseas, for a total of 14,999 NEW "offshore" jobs, MacDonald is STILL telling the truth.

The article also states that these moves will bring IBM's total workforce to approximately 330,000...with only half of these positions in the US...so there's no sacrifice being made by "shifting fewer" jobs overseas.

I'm sure that even a "blind man in a room full of deaf people" could see that adding 10,500 "offshore employees" to the 150,000-plus they already have would certainly reduce the need to export US jobs...at least by 10,500.

[aquart]

1. I want this math problem on the SATs.

Let's get our kids ready for the real world.

[TolstoyAndy]

2. Don't bother

In the New America, our kids won't need math.

[Avalon Sparks]

3. Excellent suggestion Aquart!

What a great idea.

[cryofan]

4. If IBM hires 1500 people are 500 of them work overseas...

....by what percent will the average American wage drop, and by what percent will the American hopeless shelters be overcrowded?

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. Question 2...

And if 30% of all people who get laid off either commit crimes or commit suicide, how long before our society implodes into a sea of anarchy and despair?

Actually, the question should be part of the writing section of the test.