Recruiting in China

Washington: International Business Machines Corp is increasing its employee count, with most of the growth coming in India and China, as well as other emerging markets, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

The IBM has been hiring steadily in emerging markets, and its total work force in the BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China - will approach 100,000 people by the end of the year, up from about 85,000 at the end of 2006, the report quoted a source familiar with its hiring as saying.

At the end of 2006, IBM employed 355,000 people around the world. A forecast of the worldwide employment total for the end of 2007 wasn't available.

This year, the IBM's employment in India is likely to reach 73,000 people, up from 52,000 last year. Employment in China will top 13,000, up about 30 per cent from 10,000 last year, the source said.

IBM spokesman Edward Barbini confirmed the accuracy of the numbers. He said some of the emerging markets' employment reflects outsourcing of services, software development and manufacturing work that used to be done in Europe and the US, according to the report.