IBM Corp. plans to move up to 4,730 programming jobs from the U.S. to India, China and other countries, according to a recent report published in the online edition of The Wall Street Journal.
The plans concern programmers in IBM’s global services division, according to internal company documents cited by the Journal. The affected employees work at sites around the U.S., including Southbury, Conn.; Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; Raleigh, N.C.; Boulder, Colo., and Dallas, according to the report.
During the first half of next year, IBM plans to inform 947 U.S. employees that their work will be moving overseas, according to the report, again citing internal company documents. A further 3,700 U.S. jobs have been identified as having the “potential to move offshore,” the report said.
The 947 workers will be informed of the changes in the first half of next year, some by as early as the end of January, and will be asked to train their replacement, a worker from overseas. They will have 60 days to find another job within IBM, the report said.
IBM chief executive officer Sam Palmisano visited the company’s Indian office in Bangalore in May, reportedly to brief staff there on IBM’s plans for outsourcing.
IBM is recruiting mainframe programmers in a number of fields for the facility in Bangalore, according to its recruitment Web site.
At press time, an IBM representative could not be immediately reached for comment on the report.