Infosys to increase hiring in the US, employ 25,000 people by 2022

Information technology (IT) services firm Infosys said that it has increased its hiring commitment in the US. The Bengaluru-based firm looks to hire 12,000 Americans in the next two years, taking the total number of employees in the country to 25,000.  

The development comes amid travel restrictions caused by the Covid-19 outbreak, coupled with the US government's suspension of H-1B visas till the year-end. The new jobs may offset some of the job losses caused by the pandemic and the subsequent economic turmoil in the country. 

Infosys has been hiring locals for several onsite projects over the past five years, as it has become increasingly harder for IT services firms to obtain H-1B visas. The Donald Trump administration favours product firms, such as Microsoft, Apple and Amazon, over IT services firms such as TCS, Cognizant and Wipro, for these visas.

The $190 billion Indian software industry is heavily reliant on the US market. In fact, the North American market makes up 50-60% of the total revenues of top Indian IT services companies. 

Infosys said it will hire experienced technology professionals as well as recent graduates from major universities, liberal arts colleges and community colleges. The company added that it will employ people without the traditional four-year degrees as well. 

It will also utilise its training and reskilling programmes, including the recently launched Reskill and Restart initiative. 

“While we continue to leverage our established university partnerships to strengthen our talent pool, our recently launched Reskill and Restart platform will play a crucial role in our growth as we meet this commitment. We will bring a specific focus on building pathways for those who have been impacted by the economic downturn. Workers who have been left out of the digital economy will now have the opportunity to gain the skills needed for 21st-century careers,” Ravi Kumar, president of Infosys, said.

In 2017, the company said it made a commitment to hire 10,000 American workers over two years -- it has exceeded the goal by creating 13,000 jobs in the US so far.  

“Infosys has been intensely focused on creating jobs in the US for the past three years, and I am proud that this new commitment to hire 12,000 American workers by 2022 expands on that previous initiative. We are excited to grow our presence in the US as the digital transformation journeys of our clients accelerate,” Salil Parekh, CEO of Infosys, said.

In the past three years, Infosys has launched six technology and innovation centres in the US across Indiana, North Carolina, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Texas and Arizona. The company said that these centres are at the forefront of building leading-edge digital capabilities and training the next generation IT talent to support American businesses in an increasingly digital future.

According to Infosys, its training and education infrastructure has allowed the company to cultivate top technology talent outside of the traditional technology hub geographies and provide American workers with new pathways to transition from conventional jobs across various industries and workstreams to digital and operations jobs of the future.