'IBM to reassign 30% of staff for 103,000 service delivery biz in 2018'

International Business Machines Corp plans to reassign up to 30 per cent of staff in its 103,000 computer service delivery business this year with job losses through attrition of around 10,000, technology website The Register reported on Thursday, citing unnamed company insiders.

The news site published a slide it said was from an IBM internal presentation, which showed 10,100 jobs classified as "attrition w/o backfill".

IBM, one of the world's original PC producers but now a broad-based producer, integrator and software maker, beat expectations for revenue in its last quarterly results in October after 22 straight quarters of declines.

Spokesmen for IBM declined to make any immediate comment.
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General Electric to cut 4,500 jobs in Europe: Source

General Electric Co plans to cut 4,500 jobs in Europe, the first numbers to emerge on layoffs from the US industrial conglomerate since it outlined plans to restructure and shed units last month.

The cuts, which are linked to businesses GE bought from France's Alstom in 2015, will affect employees in Switzerland, Germany and Britain, said French newspaper Les Echos, which first reported the news on Tuesday.

A labor union source confirmed the layoff numbers to Reuters on Wednesday and said an official announcement was expected as early as Thursday.

GE did not confirm the numbers but said it was "reviewing its operations to ensure the business is best positioned to respond to our market realities and for long-term success." The company had presented a proposal to the European body representing legacy Alstom employees, it added.

Last month, General Electric CEO John Flannery outlined plans to reduce the manufacturing footprint of GE's power business to respond to a sharp fall in demand for fossil fuel power equipment. GE did not specify how many jobs would be cut or where.
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Hurricane impact: US jobless claims topped estimates last week, at 239,000

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The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, suggesting that claims processing disrupted by recent hurricanes has begun to improve.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 239,000 for the week ended Nov. 4, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims had fallen to 229,000 in the prior week, near a 44-1/2-year low, and remain well below the 300,000 level generally regarded as signaling a healthy labor market.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 231,000 in the latest week. They have declined from an almost three-year high of 298,000 hit at the start of September in the aftermath of hurricanes that ravaged parts of Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

The Labor Department noted that it is now processing backlogged claims in Puerto Rico though its operations in the Virgin Islands remain severely disrupted.

US Treasury yields held near session highs after the data, while the dollar trimmed losses. US stock index futures were slightly lower, a day after Wall Street closed at a record high.

Last week marked the 139th straight week that claims remained below the 300,000 threshold. That is the longest such stretch since 1970, when the labor market was smaller.
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BAE Systems to axe more than 1,000 jobs in Britain: Report

British military equipment maker BAE Systems will axe more than 1,000 jobs in Britain, or just over one per cent of its total workforce, media reported today.

BAE will cut "well over 1,000" jobs, Sky News reported citing unnamed insiders. Sources added that Brexit was "not a factor" behind the move.

The London-listed company has 34,600 staff in Britain and 83,000 worldwide.

BAE faces slowing demand for the Eurofighter Typhoon jet, developed with the help of Italy's Finmeccanica and Airbus as part of a European consortium.

"BAE Systems continually reviews its operations to make sure we are performing as effectively and efficiently as possible, delivering our commitments to existing customers and ensuring we are best placed to secure future business," the firm said in a brief statement issued to media.

"If and when there are any changes proposed we are committed to communicating with our employees and their representatives first," it added.
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US lawmaker pitches for the removal of country specific quota in Green Card

A top American lawmaker has demanded the removal of country-specific quota for legal permanent residency in the US, arguing that over seven lakh high-skilled immigrant workers from India are stuck on a cycle of temporary work visas due to the "arbitrary" cap on Green Cards.

"More than 700,000 high-skilled immigrant workers from India are in the US today on temporary work visas. These people are working hard every day helping grow our economy, raising their children as Americans right here in our communities," Congressman Kevin Yoder from Kansas said in his remarks on the floor of the US House of Representatives.

"But under our immigration system they are stuck on a cycle of temporary work visas, unable to change jobs or even start their own small business to create more American jobs. They're stuck because of the arbitrary seven per nation cap on employment-based green cards," the Republican lawmaker said.

"Right now, there's a mother in Greenland whose unborn child will be able to obtain permanent residence in America before someone from India who is already here and have been working here for years. That's absurd and it's wrong," he said.
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US jobless claims rise from three-month low

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits rebounded from a three-month low last week, but remained below a level consistent with a tightening labor market.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 244,000 for the week ended July 22, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

Data for the prior week was revised to show 1,000 more applications received than previously reported.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 241,000. It was the 125th straight week that claims remained below 300,000, a threshold associated with a robust labor market. That is the longest such stretch since 1970, when the labor market was smaller. The labor market is near full employment, with the jobless rate at 4.4 percent.

Claims have been volatile in recent weeks as automakers shut assembly plants for annual retooling. Some manufacturers like General Motors are extending their summer shutdowns to manage excess inventory from declining sales.

Economists say this could be throwing off the model used by the government to strip out seasonal fluctuations from the data, causing swings in the weekly numbers.

A Labor Department official said there were no special factors influencing the claims data and that no states had been estimated.
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Wall Street records fresh highs on Yellen's rate hike views at testimony

US stocks opened higher on Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said interest rates hikes would be gradual and will not have to rise much further to reach neutral rate.

Yellen, in a prepared testimony to be delivered to Congress at 10 a.m. ET (1400 GMT), said the economy is healthy enough to absorb further gradual rate increases and the slow wind down of the Federal Reserve's massive bond portfolio.

The testimony depicted an economy that, while growing slowly, continued to add jobs, benefited from steady household consumption and a recent jump in business investment.

Investors and some Fed officials, concerned with the recent dip in inflation, have been wanting to see a surer progress toward the central bank's goal of 2 percent inflation.

Yellen ascribed the inflation drop to "a few unusual reductions in certain categories of prices" and said it would eventually drop out of the calculation.

"I'm not very surprised by Yellen's comments. She's been pretty steadfast that we're raising rates... The market is liking the fact that she's seeing economic growth," said Paul Nolte, portfolio manager at Kingsview Asset Management in Chicago.

"What the Fed's doing and she's doing is continuing the case for raising rates."

The U.S central bank will also issue its Beige Book at 2 p.m. ET, a compendium of anecdotes on the health of the economy. The Fed's next policy meeting is on July 25-26.

At 9:38 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 133.61 points, or 0.62 percent, at 21,542.68, the S&P 500 was up 16.18 points, or 0.66 percent, at 2,441.71.
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'IT sector to layoff up to 2 lakh engineers annually for next 3 years'

Executive search firm Head Hunters India said the job cuts in IT sector will be between 1.75 lakh and 2 lakh annually for next three years due to under-preparedness in adapting to newer technologies.

"Contrary to media reports of 56,000 IT professionals to lose jobs this year, the actual job cuts will be between 1.75 lakh and 2 lakh per year in next three years, due to under- preparedness in adapting to newer technologies," Head Hunters India Founder-Chairman and MD K Lakshmikanth told PTI, analysing a report submitted by McKinsey & Company at the Nasscom India Leadership Forum on February 17.

McKinsey & Company report had said nearly half of the workforce in the IT services firms will be "irrelevant" over the next 3-4 years.

McKinsey India Managing Director Noshir Kaka had also said the bigger challenge ahead for the industry will be to retrain 50-60 per cent of the workforce as there will be a significant shift in technologies. The industry employs 3.9 million people and the majority of them have to be retrained.

"So, when we analyse these figures, it is clear that 30 to 40 per cent of the workforce cannot be retrained or re- skilled. So, assume that half of this workforce can continue to work on old skills, then balance will become redundant.

"So, the number of people who will become redundant in the next three years will be about five to six lakhs. This will workout to, on a average, between 1.75 lakh to 2 lakh per year for next three years," Lakshmikanth explained.

However, he said job cuts will not take place in major cities like Mumbai or Bengaluru, but cities like Coimbatore or a few remote places, he said.

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Budget 2017 wish list: Young India expects lower fees, cheaper gadgets

Latest News - Curtailment of education fees, cheaper electronic gadgets and more focus on jobs are some of the expectations Young India has from the Budget for fiscal 2017-18 that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will table in Parliament on Wednesday.

Many students and professionals who spoke said they wanted a youth-oriented budget that will help underprivileged students pursue higher studies and cheaper electronic gadgets to make the government's Digital India initiative a success in a country where almost 47.8 per cent of population is currently aged below 29.

With India set to account for 20 per cent of the world's workforce in the next three years, many young men and women wanted the government to largely focus its resources on how to (Read More)