 "Accenture to create 15,000 jobs in United States")
Accenture Plc said on Friday it would create 15,000 jobs in the United States (US), as IT services firms brace for a more protectionist US technology visa program under President Donald Trump.
The company is domiciled in Dublin, Ireland, while a large chunk of its more than 394,000 employees is in India.
IT services companies came under the spotlight after Trump said that his administration would focus on creating more jobs for US workers, who had been affected by the outsourcing of jobs abroad.
Major IT service companies, particularly those based in India, use H-1B visas to fly engineers to the United States to service clients, but some opponents argue they are misusing the program to replace US jobs.
Accenture said on Friday it would invest $1.4 billion to train its employees and would open 10 innovation centres in some US cities.
The newly added jobs will raise the company's US workforce by 30% to more than 65,000 by the end of 2020, the company said.
The US business accounted for 46% of the company's full-year revenue for the year ended August 31.
