Accenture To Create 15,000 Jobs In US (reuters.com)

Accenture said on Friday it would create 15,000 "highly skilled" new jobs in the United States, as IT services firms brace for a more protectionist U.S. technology visa program under President Donald Trump. From a report on Reuters: The company, which is domiciled in Dublin, Ireland, said the new jobs would increase the company's U.S. workforce by 30 percent to more than 65,000 by the end of 2020. Accenture has more than 394,000 employees, of which about 140,000 are in India. IT services companies have come under the spotlight after Trump said that his administration would focus on creating more jobs for U.S. workers, who had been affected by the outsourcing of jobs abroad. Major IT service companies, particularly those based in India, fly engineers to the United States using H-1B visas to service clients, but some opponents argue they are misusing the visa program to replace U.S. jobs.

Comments

Globalization vs. Protectionism

[sinij]

We were told that globalization is the future, it will increase our prosperity and so on. After decades of this most consumer goods are very cheap and very poorly made. All salaries stagnated. At the same time a whole bunch of folks are out of jobs and can't afford to buy food.

Now we are trying protectionism. Consumer good are still relatively cheap but the jobs are gradually coming back. Salaries ticked up for the first time since 90s.

So could someone explain to me why we hate protectionism?

Re:Globalization vs. Protectionism

[gtall]

On the other hand, a lot more poor countries in the world, which would happen with de-globalization, means increased immigration, legal and illegal, to rich countries. You can pay now or pay later, but either way you will pay.

Re:Globalization vs. Protectionism

[LeftCoastThinker]

We are NOT trying protectionism, that is what the rest of the world has been doing for literally forever... We are moving to fair trade around the world. Let me educate you my fellow slashdot citizens: The US during the cold war set up trade deals to foster freedom and democracy around the world. We essentially used our economy to subsidize other free countries to help them grow and stabilize many regions. The cold war ended over 25 years ago, but the lopsided trade deals remained and many of our trading partners have further pushed their unfair trade advantages with the US to further extremes. The American people have been hurting ever since the dot com bubble burst and the 9-11 terrorist attacks drained ~$3 trillion from the US economy, with the war on terror draining another ~$3 trillion, with the rest of the world offering only token support while they grow fat on their socialistic benefits, made possible in large part by the US subsidizing their national defense with our military and subsidizing their economy with lopsided trade deals. The US citizens have looked around the world and collectively said WTF, no more of this bullshit and elected Trump to do what every other leader of every other country around the world does and is expected to do: put his own country's interests first...

Fact: The labor participation rates under Obama were the lowest they have been in 40 years (since Jimmy Carter).

Inflation has been created by the Fed lending the federal government trillions of dollars (more than half to most of the $12T of debt that Obama racked up in his 8 years, we don't have accurate numbers because the Fed or treasury won't release them). My guess is Trump won't release them either for fear of panicking the markets and destroying the economy even further thanks to Obama.

Median income growth was -2.3% in the US (that is just a hard fact) over the 8 years since Obama took office. That might not seem like much, but under Bill Clinton and Ronald Regan's presidencies that number was around 4% PER YEAR, that means than in either 8 year term you could expect to see your income rise by 37% on average if you were between the ages of 25-39 (where most of the middle class' bump up in income). Beyond that, if you use a real CPI, based on the things that real people buy, real income is down much more than 2.3%.

I know personally that 10 years ago I could buy more with my dollar than today, and the things I bought weren't cheap Chicom knockoffs from once proud companies that have been bankrupted by the flood of cheap junk competition from China. Probably 50% of our landfills today are filled with junk from China that was a "better deal" but only lasted 6 months before falling apart.

http://www.nationalreview.com/...
https://www.brookings.edu/blog...

Put the blame where it belongs.

[mmell]

If an company can do what they need to cheaper by hiring someone from overseas - especially a disposable someone who they can use and dispose of - they're going to do exactly that. US law has forbidden indentured servitude for a long time, but the H1B visa represents a legal version of exactly that. Here, try this:

Get rid of work visas outright. If a company can't find talent here in the US, they should feel free to sponsor a foreign national for citizenship - and take away the ability to summarily deport the foreign worker when they're through with them. Instead of a revolving door of H1B visa holders, we'll end up with more US citizens - workers who will be incentivized to demand the same pay and working conditions as their peers in the workplace.

I know of a certain international business machine firm that uses (abuses) huge numbers of H1B visa holders precisely because they can get away with it. It's great for their bottom line; they get employees that are willing to accept vastly substandard wages and work unpaid overtime in sweatshop-style conditions because they know that should they even think of standing up to it they'll be shipped back to wherever they came from. Now, if these guys were on the path to citizenship, I'm sure the manufacturer in question could still discharge them (after all, they're only contractors, not employees) - but they'll have a harder time making the case that there's no local talent to be had, because there will be all of these qualified personnel right here working towards citizenship.

Oh, the firm I'm not-so-subtly talking about? They don't pay US citizens very well, either. What should have been at least a $70,000/year salary gig for me ended up being a $24.04/hour job - contractors will be paid better, but they will end up providing unpaid overtime to make up for it (I know; I went down that path with them as well). In the end, I'm not saying we should prevent immigrants from finding work here in the US. I'm saying we should prevent visitors from allowing large enterprises to degrade compensation and work conditions for employees in the US.

Re:That much demand for being lied to?

[Anonymous Coward]

I work for a company that hired Accenture consultants. After a large project announced delays, the higher-ups wanted to know what was going on. Accenture was one of a bunch of companies hired. Since we have many disciplines: engineering, chemistry, etc, the company contracted different organizations to handle each discipline. The best part was that Accenture basically came-back and blamed management. :-) We've been telling them that their timelines were unreal for a long while now, and the consultants basically agreed with us, recommending that the higher-ups get training on the systems they are imposing on us. Overall, the result was awesome. They did their jobs, and they gave *real* results instead of telling the company what it wanted to hear.

Sorry for posting AC, but the product isn't announced and my name can be tied to the company.

Re:That much demand for being lied to?

[HornWumpus]

Said every government employee/contractor, ever. 99% are lying, mostly to themselves.

Re:That much demand for being lied to?

[HornWumpus]

I know this is ironic. But I've 'consulted' (more than 50% of our clients were former EDS/EMA clients, this phenomenon was an opportunity) for many government organizations and non-profit NGOs (in the Electric power industry, I'm counting PUD/MUDs as NGOs). 90% air thieves watching clocks, 10% actual workers. (In the office at the overripe ones...linemen/plant operators etc are just different, in no small part because they have real jobs that have real metrics. There is no bullshitting a down power line. They still featherbed, but jobs got done.)

Sure they are mostly 'doing their best with few resources' but one of those few resources is typically 'intelligence and motivation'.

The older the NGO/government department the higher % of staff is connected people that the rest of the staff wished had 'no show jobs' as they only get in the way, costing 2 or 3 times their direct salary in wasted time/resources. Peter principle corollary at work.

Which isn't to say 'for profits' with government granted monopolies are much better.

It is largely a problem with old fossilized organizations. We were watching the old order fall apart as previous monopolists were forced to prepare for competition in power pools. You could see those with no hope of competing vs. those getting ready. Also the whole deal was colored by these places being Engineering focused, power companies have no bullshit possible metrics, rate and reliability. Which is why we were able to displace the likes of EDS, no matter how many blowjobs their suits were giving. They knew the days of 'making a profit remodeling the president's office' were ending.

Curious, I know you know a little about Sac. Are you familiar with CA's General Services Admin (GSA)? You realize it's a government administration whose only purpose is to be a 'transfer destination' for air thieves in other parts of CA government? They can't fire them, just transfer them to GSA, where they 'work' until retirement. Building is about six stories, one full city block, south of Broadway in downtown Sacramento.