H-1B Effect: Infosys To Hire 10,000 American Workers

New Delhi: With a view to tide over visa-related issues with the Donald Trump administration, Indian IT major Infosys will hire about 10,000 locals in the US for the overseas centers over the next two years.

The Infosys would also set up four technology and innovation hubs in different locations in America. Through these new hires and centers, Infosys will also focus on enhancing its play in new technology areas like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, user experience, cloud and big data.

It may be recalled that Infosys had released 8,000-9,000 employees due to automation of lower-end jobs in the last one year.

Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka said the first hub, which will open in Indiana in August this year, will create 2,000 jobs by 2021 for American workers. The location of the other three centers will be decided over the next few months. These hubs will not only train people on technology and innovation but also help in working closely with clients in key industries like financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, retail and energy.

The North American market accounted for over 60 per cent of Infosys' USD 10.2 billion revenue in the 2016-17 fiscal. Sikka, however, said these steps were not being taken just to mitigate the impact of stricter visa norms in the US.

Sikka said over the last three years, there has been an increase in the use of new technologies like AI and virtual reality and even the traditional projects are becoming highly automated. "As work becomes more next-gen, you need a more healthier mix of global and local talent and so, you need to re-think the traditional, what has historically been called 'global delivery model' and bring in a lot more talent locally," he added. Over the past few weeks, there has been a growing sentiment of protectionism across various markets, including the US, that are seeking to safeguard jobs for locals and raising the bar for foreign workers. The US had also accused Infosys and its larger rival, Tata Consultancy Services, of "unfairly" cornering the lion's share of the H-1B work visas by putting extra tickets in the lottery system. Every year, the US grants 65,000 H-1B visas while another 20,000 are set aside for those with US advanced degrees.