IBM Hiring Forecast Brightens

Driven by growing demand for its global business consulting services, IBM
said today it would almost double the number of new hires it originally
projected for 2004.

The tech bellwether said it plans to add
an additional 8,800 workers to its previous forecast of 10,000 new jobs.
The majority of the jobs will be in Linux services, grid computing and
business transformation services, according to IBM spokesperson Clint
Roswell, who added that about two-thirds of the jobs would be in business
consulting.

“The number one hire is a consultant at the intersection of IT and different
industries,” Roswell said. “The hiring pace has accelerated. In the month of
July, we added about 3,000 new jobs.”

About one-third of the jobs will be based in North America with another
third each in Europe and Asia.

The hiring projections do not include employees gained through acquisitions
or jobs outsourced to IBM. The company currently projects to employ
approximately 330,000 employees by the end of the year, its highest total
since 1991.

Most of the new hires will be experienced IT professionals with only a third
focused on recent college and university graduates.

The hiring news brightens an otherwise bad week of announcements from the
tech sector. Thursday morning, HP announced that earnings
for the third quarter would be 7 cents lower than the analysts’ consensus of
31 cents.

IBM shares were down $1.24 to $82.29 in mid-afternoon
trading.