Leading IT service provider Accenture PLC appears to be in support of Trump’s protectionist plans — at least that is what many people are inferring from the company’s Friday announcement. The firm has pledged the creation of 15,000 fresh jobs in the United States.
Accenture is part of Fortune Global 500 companies and provides strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations services to its clients. The company serves its clients from 200 cities across 120 different countries and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. A lion’s share of its employees, more than 394,000, hail from India.
Since Trump’s commitment of creating more and more jobs for United States citizens, the IT service firms have been in the foreground, as they may be compelled to stop outsourcing jobs outside the U.S. The decision may affect the employment scenario because most of the IT firms, particularly the ones based in India, serve their clients by providing them with employees that can be flown out to them with the help of H-1B visa. Many in the US however, have been calling for changes to the visa program stating that that these firms are actually misusing it for reducing job opportunities in U.S.
Accenture will also be investing $1.4 billion for training its employees and would roll out 10 new innovation centers in some U.S. cities. The company also mentioned that these freshly added job opportunities will take its U.S. task force to the count of 65,000 by the end of 2020.
Accenture is largely dependent on its clients from U.S. for generating revenue and a whooping 46% of its complete revenue for the year which ended on 31st August, 2016, came from the US. Considering this, it is easy to see why the company could go to great lengths to ensure that it stays on the right side of the administration. It is no alone either. Recently, Intel also announced the creation of jobs by investing in and restarting its Arizona factory — an announcement that was aired straight from the white house.
