IBM, the world's largest technology services company, plans to open a new computer support center in Iowa, creating up to 1,300 new jobs and defying a trend of widespread corporate layoffs.
The Dubuque facility in a 10-story office building once occupied by now-defunct retailer Roshek's Department Store, will create jobs for high-tech workers at a time when many technology companies are cutting staff.
Workers will provide security services and remote support to IBM customers, helping to maintain computers and software systems primarily located in the United States, IBM said.
International Business Machines Corp said it plans to employ several hundred people in the facility by the end of this year, following renovations to the top eight floors of the building that it will occupy to make it more energy efficient.
By the end of next year, as many as 1,300 IBM employees will work in the building built in the 1930s, IBM said.
On Tuesday, IBM announced plans to work with Michigan State University to build a software development center in East Lansing, Michigan, that will create up to 1,500 jobs over the next five years.
Agencies
Showing posts with label high-tech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label high-tech. Show all posts
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Asian tech firms force workers to take leave
When the global recession began to take a toll on high-tech manufacturers in Taiwan, the factories gave their workers a vacation that many would have just as soon skipped.
Putting workers on forced unpaid leave, often for one or more days a week, is a tactic being adopted around the world as firms seek to cut costs and keep skilled workers on the payroll, even if there is little work to do, so that they will have resources when orders pick up.
“When an economic downturn begins to take hold, employers knee-jerk into making dramatic changes,’’ said Darryl Green, president of Asia Pacific for human resources firm Manpower.
“But there are employers who will stop at nothing to try to retain their valuable workforce. These employers — often in the manufacturing sector where skills are hard to come by — consider innovative alternatives such as shorter working weeks and short-term shut-downs.’’
Employment specialists say the phenomenon is not unique to Taiwan, and is used more broadly by manufacturers in cyclical industries, ranging from electronics makers in South Korea, to car makers in Britain, and manufacturers in Germany.
In Taiwan, the trend of forcing workers to take leave without pay, euphemistically called “unpaid vacation’’ in Chinese, began in the memory chip sector which experienced its worst-ever slump throughout most of 2008.
From there this cost savings measure has quietly spread to other key sectors such as LCD manufacturing and other chips.
In one of the clearest and most sobering signs of the times, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker and one of Taiwan’s most profitable tech firms, said this month it will roll out its own forced leave without pay system in 2009. TSMC’s main rival, UMC, is taking similar measures.
Taiwan makes 70 per cent of the world’s made-to-order chips which are used in everything from computers to cell phones and MP3 players. TSMC and UMC, which are the biggest players in Taiwan, saw their collective sales plunge 35 percent in November from a year before, with TSMC posting its worst monthly sales in 3-years.
TSMC laid down the cold reality of its situation to employees in a December 3 letter from CEO Rick Tsai, who said he feared the current economic downturn could last for a “fairly long time.’’
“The company must do its utmost to lower costs,’’ Tsai wrote. “At the same time, we will also do all we can to protect employees’ jobs. Under these circumstances manufacturing departments have decided to take a certain amount of unpaid furlough in December. All other departments will begin to do the same on January 1.”
Sources: Agencies
Putting workers on forced unpaid leave, often for one or more days a week, is a tactic being adopted around the world as firms seek to cut costs and keep skilled workers on the payroll, even if there is little work to do, so that they will have resources when orders pick up.
“When an economic downturn begins to take hold, employers knee-jerk into making dramatic changes,’’ said Darryl Green, president of Asia Pacific for human resources firm Manpower.
“But there are employers who will stop at nothing to try to retain their valuable workforce. These employers — often in the manufacturing sector where skills are hard to come by — consider innovative alternatives such as shorter working weeks and short-term shut-downs.’’
Employment specialists say the phenomenon is not unique to Taiwan, and is used more broadly by manufacturers in cyclical industries, ranging from electronics makers in South Korea, to car makers in Britain, and manufacturers in Germany.
In Taiwan, the trend of forcing workers to take leave without pay, euphemistically called “unpaid vacation’’ in Chinese, began in the memory chip sector which experienced its worst-ever slump throughout most of 2008.
From there this cost savings measure has quietly spread to other key sectors such as LCD manufacturing and other chips.
In one of the clearest and most sobering signs of the times, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker and one of Taiwan’s most profitable tech firms, said this month it will roll out its own forced leave without pay system in 2009. TSMC’s main rival, UMC, is taking similar measures.
Taiwan makes 70 per cent of the world’s made-to-order chips which are used in everything from computers to cell phones and MP3 players. TSMC and UMC, which are the biggest players in Taiwan, saw their collective sales plunge 35 percent in November from a year before, with TSMC posting its worst monthly sales in 3-years.
TSMC laid down the cold reality of its situation to employees in a December 3 letter from CEO Rick Tsai, who said he feared the current economic downturn could last for a “fairly long time.’’
“The company must do its utmost to lower costs,’’ Tsai wrote. “At the same time, we will also do all we can to protect employees’ jobs. Under these circumstances manufacturing departments have decided to take a certain amount of unpaid furlough in December. All other departments will begin to do the same on January 1.”
Sources: Agencies
Asian tech firms force workers to take leave
When the global recession began to take a toll on high-tech manufacturers in Taiwan, the factories gave their workers a vacation that many would have just as soon skipped.
Putting workers on forced unpaid leave, often for one or more days a week, is a tactic being adopted around the world as firms seek to cut costs and keep skilled workers on the payroll, even if there is little work to do, so that they will have resources when orders pick up.
“When an economic downturn begins to take hold, employers knee-jerk into making dramatic changes,’’ said Darryl Green, president of Asia Pacific for human resources firm Manpower.
“But there are employers who will stop at nothing to try to retain their valuable workforce. These employers — often in the manufacturing sector where skills are hard to come by — consider innovative alternatives such as shorter working weeks and short-term shut-downs.’’
Employment specialists say the phenomenon is not unique to Taiwan, and is used more broadly by manufacturers in cyclical industries, ranging from electronics makers in South Korea, to car makers in Britain, and manufacturers in Germany.
In Taiwan, the trend of forcing workers to take leave without pay, euphemistically called “unpaid vacation’’ in Chinese, began in the memory chip sector which experienced its worst-ever slump throughout most of 2008.
From there this cost savings measure has quietly spread to other key sectors such as LCD manufacturing and other chips.
In one of the clearest and most sobering signs of the times, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker and one of Taiwan’s most profitable tech firms, said this month it will roll out its own forced leave without pay system in 2009. TSMC’s main rival, UMC, is taking similar measures.
Taiwan makes 70 per cent of the world’s made-to-order chips which are used in everything from computers to cell phones and MP3 players. TSMC and UMC, which are the biggest players in Taiwan, saw their collective sales plunge 35 percent in November from a year before, with TSMC posting its worst monthly sales in 3-years.
TSMC laid down the cold reality of its situation to employees in a December 3 letter from CEO Rick Tsai, who said he feared the current economic downturn could last for a “fairly long time.’’
“The company must do its utmost to lower costs,’’ Tsai wrote. “At the same time, we will also do all we can to protect employees’ jobs. Under these circumstances manufacturing departments have decided to take a certain amount of unpaid furlough in December. All other departments will begin to do the same on January 1.”
Sources: Agencies
Putting workers on forced unpaid leave, often for one or more days a week, is a tactic being adopted around the world as firms seek to cut costs and keep skilled workers on the payroll, even if there is little work to do, so that they will have resources when orders pick up.
“When an economic downturn begins to take hold, employers knee-jerk into making dramatic changes,’’ said Darryl Green, president of Asia Pacific for human resources firm Manpower.
“But there are employers who will stop at nothing to try to retain their valuable workforce. These employers — often in the manufacturing sector where skills are hard to come by — consider innovative alternatives such as shorter working weeks and short-term shut-downs.’’
Employment specialists say the phenomenon is not unique to Taiwan, and is used more broadly by manufacturers in cyclical industries, ranging from electronics makers in South Korea, to car makers in Britain, and manufacturers in Germany.
In Taiwan, the trend of forcing workers to take leave without pay, euphemistically called “unpaid vacation’’ in Chinese, began in the memory chip sector which experienced its worst-ever slump throughout most of 2008.
From there this cost savings measure has quietly spread to other key sectors such as LCD manufacturing and other chips.
In one of the clearest and most sobering signs of the times, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker and one of Taiwan’s most profitable tech firms, said this month it will roll out its own forced leave without pay system in 2009. TSMC’s main rival, UMC, is taking similar measures.
Taiwan makes 70 per cent of the world’s made-to-order chips which are used in everything from computers to cell phones and MP3 players. TSMC and UMC, which are the biggest players in Taiwan, saw their collective sales plunge 35 percent in November from a year before, with TSMC posting its worst monthly sales in 3-years.
TSMC laid down the cold reality of its situation to employees in a December 3 letter from CEO Rick Tsai, who said he feared the current economic downturn could last for a “fairly long time.’’
“The company must do its utmost to lower costs,’’ Tsai wrote. “At the same time, we will also do all we can to protect employees’ jobs. Under these circumstances manufacturing departments have decided to take a certain amount of unpaid furlough in December. All other departments will begin to do the same on January 1.”
Sources: Agencies
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