"To reach its target of adding 1,000 new employees every month [in India], the company sorts through 60,000 resumes and conducts 10,000 interviews" as part of the effort to hit the 100,000 mark, AMR chief research officer Bruce Richardson wrote Friday on a blog covering his recent trip to IBM facilities in Bangalore.
Richardson says the 100,000 figure is an extrapolation of current growth rates at IBM India. "I did the math," he said in an e-mail Monday to InformationWeek.
IBM has a policy against commenting on employee growth rates for specific countries, so the number can't be verified. However, it's a reasonable prediction based on IBM's recent past. Between March 2006 and March 2005, IBM raised head count in India from 23,000 to 39,000--an increase of 70% in just one year. The company has also said publicly it would invest $6 billion in India over the next two years to build out its presence in the country.
IBM employs about 300,000 workers worldwide, with about half of those located in the U.S. India already represents IBM's largest workforce outside the U.S.