Dive Brief:
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IBM CEO Ginni Rometty says the nature of work is evolving to include "new collar jobs" with a heavier emphasis on tech skills, which in turn requires new approaches to education, training and recruitment. Rometty made the comments in a contributed article published Tuesday by USA TODAY.
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Citing statistics from the U.S. Labor Department, Rometty said there are half a million open tech job in the U.S. Those jobs often remain open because of the "nature of work is evolving," Rometty said. Like many other companies, IBM also has open positions to fill and in the next four years Big Blue plans to hire 25,000 professionals. In 2017, the company expects to hire 6,000 of those.
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IBM also plans to invest $1 billion over the next four years to help improve training and development of its U.S. employees, Rometty said.
Dive Insight:
This is not the first time Rometty has emphasized the importance of tech education and gaps in the U.S. tech labor economy. Last month, Rometty published an open letter to President-elect Donald Trump with suggestions on how he and IBM can work together.
Her promise to hire 25,000 workers also comes the day before the president-elect is set to meet with the who's who of tech leaders. At the tech summit Wednesday, CEOs from companies like Alphabet, Apple and Microsoft are scheduled to sit down with Trump to likely discuss the U.S. tech economy, a sector that largely ignored Trump during the election.
Rometty has thus far stayed close to the administration, touting the potential good that could come from working together. The move has had its benefits thus far. She was recently appointed to the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum, a group that will advise Trump on business issues as part of his plan to "bring back jobs" and "make America great again." Rometty was the only tech leader included in the group.
