Posted on 04/16/2010 6:53:06 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The technology industry, an engine of innovation and U.S. prosperity for more than half a century, is accelerating its recovery from the recession with surging earnings that have spurred companies to sharply ramp up their hiring.
The latest evidence for the rebound came Thursday, when Internet giant Google Inc. posted a 37% profit jump for the first quarter and chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. reported a 34% revenue increase to record levels. The results follow the strong showing of bellwether Intel Corp., which Tuesday announced quarterly profit that nearly quadrupled on a 44% jump in sales.
The trio of results kicks off what is likely to be a strong earnings streak as tech spending by companies and consumers picks up. Next week, Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp., among others, are slated to report quarterly results. Tech-research firm ISI Group projects that overall revenues from such companies will rise more than 10% for the first quarter, compared with a 16% decline a year earlier. Meanwhile, Standard & Poor's forecasts a 79% increase in tech earnings for the quarter from year-ago levels.
The growth has reached a level where tech companies are pushing to hire again, in some cases engaging in heated competition for talent. That's a turnabout for the industry, which had a series of layoffs last year, when some tech giants, notably Microsoft Corp., had mass layoffs for the first time.
The hiring ramp-up began late last year, with demand for tech goods and services stabilizing after months of declines. At the time, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said the Mountain View, Calif., company was ready to spend again, including on new recruits. On Thursday, Google said it hired 786 new employees in the first quarter and was just getting started.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Earlier this week Intel disclosed plans for what it called its first substantial hiring in five years. The company expects to hire 1,000 to 2,000 people in 2010, an Intel spokeswoman said. The Santa Clara, Calif., chip maker, which has trimmed about 20,000 workers from its payrolls since 2006, ended 2009 with 79,800 employees.
Cisco Systems Inc. in February said it plans to hire between 2,000 and 3,000 workers, after adding 2,100 employees in the three months ended Jan. 23, mostly through acquisitions. In total, the networking-gear maker employs about 66,000 workers.
The hiring isn't limited to tech behemoths, with smaller Silicon Valley companies also diving headlong into the race for people. Twitter Inc. has added about 125 employees since last May for a total of 170, and will continue ramping up, said Chief Executive Evan Williams this week. The San Francisco company, which relocated to a new headquarters last year, will have to move again in the next year or so, he added.
Social-networking company LinkedIn Corp. said it recruited 184 people last year to bring its work force to around 500 people, with most of that hiring done in the fourth quarter. The company has hired an additional 154 people so far this year.
More like the past one and a half centuries and please let the GOP know. W seemed to think our economy was based on corn and government growth.
Excellent news for foreigners.
Next the WSJ will be pushing for more foreign workers to take over all these mythical jobs. There are hundreds of thousands of laid-off American IT workers, but they’ll be lobbying for the cheap off-shore kind.
Exactly, companies let people go knowing that in a year they would be hiring again, of course, they won’t be hiring back the people they let go.
Lots of good jobs in technology...yep...just get the g’ment off the backs of people and let it rock..
No, that’s not what I’m saying.
bump
You don’t think that’s exactly what is happening?...
Nope.
We don’t have a regulatory structure where manufacturing can be competitive in this country.
The production work will be overseas, and eventually the design work will be forced to follow.
This is basic economics, unless you are a Keynesian.
OK, my next question is this — will this news benefit foreigners MORE or Americans more ?
I work in the high-tech/IT world and all I’m seeing is best-shore hiring. I’m not doubting the report but I suspect most of these new hires are in low-cost centers like India, Russia, China, etc.
US IT workers are at risk IMO as employement and business costs continue to rise here in the states. The corporate tax rates are a main issue here so is the new Obamacare plan; I’m suprised the WSJ missed that.
I wonder if this isn’t the opening salvo on support for a new H1 visa progam?
Good example of short-term thinking in businesses. I worry about this scenario with high tech and defense industries (incl NASA). An organization cannot cut highly skilled personnel and expect to replace them easily in one to two years. Many of these technologies take years of training, apprenticeship, and practice to master.
all these people already are hired. most companies employed temps. now the temps become perm and its considered hiring
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