Dive Brief:

• IT service company, Accenture Plc, has announced plans to add as many as 15,000 highly-skilled jobs for US workers this year. This will grow the company by 30% and is part of a commitment made to address the Trump administration's demands for more US-based jobs. 
• Accenture, like many other IT firms, is concerned about the recent proposal that could double salaries for foreign workers who come to the US under H-1B status. This could impact salaries in other nations, such as India where labor is cheaper and many US companies have outsourced.
• The company plans to invest around $1.4 billion to open 10 innovation centers in select US cities, and for employee training initiatives.

Dive Insight:

As a leading and well-known IT services firm, Accenture could be leading the path for other similar companies to follow. President Trump was largely elected on a promise to bring jobs back to America, and is doing so with incentives for companies who hire stateside. Could this be a turning point for IT firms? It's hard to see now how this may impact operations in many IT firms, but it will have a steep financial impact, meaning prices for services may increase dramatically. 

This could also slow down growth and lengthen project times in some areas as there may be less employees to get the job done, an issue that has been traditionally handled by overseas teams working throughout the evening hours. With serious shortages in IT talent as it is, companies will be hard-pressed to provide on-the-job training or recruit more US-based contractors to maintain skillsets.