Even though IT job prospects may be a tad bleak in India right now, Indian IT companies are taking on board quite a few employees in the US. Indian firms are said to have created over 113,000 jobs in the US and also invested $18 billion in the country.
The details appeared in the Confederation of Indian Industry's report "Indian Roots, American Soil," which also said that these jobs were created by about 100 Indian firms in mainland US and Puerto Rico. These 100 firms totally employ 113,423 people across 50 states of the US, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, the report said, according to the Press Trust of India.
Meanwhile, in the US, the top five states in which these firms generate employment are:
New Jersey -- 8,572 jobs
Texas -- 7,271 jobs
California -- 6,749 jobs
New York -- 5,135 jobs
Georgia -- 4,554 jobs
Speaking about these figures, Indian Ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna said that Indian firms play an important part in the US' economy and make valuable contributions to it. "The presence and reach of Indian companies continue to grow each year as they invest billions of dollars and create jobs across the United States," he added.
Meanwhile, CII director general Chandrajit Banerjee also explained how these numbers prove that India and the US work closely in terms of business and help each other's economy.
After CII released the report, Congressman Pete Sessions said that India and the US' relations have continued to grow under President Donald Trump's administration and that the nation hopes to see better ties in the future. "I am glad to see, as CII's event today proves, bonds between our nations both commercial and strategic - continue to grow stronger," Sessions said.
Two of the Indian firms that have made quite a mark in the US are the Tata Group and Infosys. The Bengaluru-based IT giant had, in May, said that Infosys intended to hire 10,000 employees in the US and also set up four technology hubs in the country.
"Infosys is committed to hiring 10,000 American technology workers over the next two years to help invent and deliver the digital futures for our clients in the United States," then CEO Vishal Sikka had said in a statement.
However, with Sikka's exit as the CEO and MD, questions have been raised on whether Infosys would go ahead with the US plans. The former CEO is known to have worked closely with the firm's clients in the US and also had a team of high-level executives in the country, mostly based in California.
Analysts believe that the impact may not be that huge, but the process is likely to see a slowdown. "Local hiring in the US is inevitable. It is not something Infosys is doing differently; all other IT forms are doing it. Sikka accelerated the process. But the process may get delayed," Pareekh Jain, IT analyst, HfS Research India told Business Standard.
The Bangalore-based firm had also announced in July that it would open a new technology and innovation hub in North Carolina and hire 2,000 employees at the facility by the year 2021. The North Carolina hub will be the second one of the four hubs, the first being Indiana.
