IBM Won't Comment On Offshore Outsourcing Report

IBM declined comment Monday on a report that it plans to move several thousand programming jobs overseas. But the company did say that on a percentage basis, it expects its "hiring across the Americas to outpace the hiring in the rest of the world."

IBM didn't confirm or deny a Wall Street Journal report that said it plans to send the work of as many as 4,730 programmers to India, China, and elsewhere. According to IBM documents viewed by the Journal, the company planned to replace workers at IBM facilities in Southbury, Conn.; Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; Raleigh, N.C.; Dallas; and Boulder, Colo. Managers had already been told that IBM had hired 500 engineers in India to take on some of the work that would be moved overseas, the newspaper said.

"While we do not comment on internal presentations or projections, the vast majority of the growth in application services that will occur in markets like India, China and Latin America will result from winning new contracts, especially in high-growth areas like Business Transformation Outsourcing," IBM said in a statement Monday. "We expect our hiring next year in the U.S. to equal or increase over 2003 levels. In fact, on a percentage basis, our forecast is for hiring across the Americas to outpace the hiring in the rest of the world."