Gov. Bev Perdue announced today that IBM Lender Business Process Services Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of International Business Machines Corp., will hire 600 workers during the next two years and invest $3.7 million to open a managed business process service center in Research Triangle Park. A state Job Development Investment Grant helped make the project possible.
“IBM has been a major employer in North Carolina providing thousands of skilled jobs for more than 30 years. We value this company’s ongoing commitment to North Carolina and Research Triangle Park,” said Perdue.
IBM LBPS offers a broad range of lender-based technology and business process solutions for its clients. (For more information, visit www.lbps.com) Salaries for the 600 new jobs will vary according to responsibilities and function, but the overall average pay for the new positions will be $50,000 a year not including benefits. The Durham County average is $57,772.
“The new services operation furthers our commitment to the state of North Carolina and our ongoing presence in Research Triangle Park,” said Bob Greenberg, senior state executive, IBM North Carolina. “These skilled positions, coupled with our investment earlier this year in an energy efficient cloud-computing data center, demonstrate that as the marketplace demands new skills and technology, growth opportunities in North Carolina continue to be a hub of activity.”
The Economic Investment Committee voted today to award a Job Development Investment Grant to IBM LBPS to facilitate this project. For each year in which the company meets the required performance targets, the state will provide a grant equal to 65 percent of the state personal income withholding taxes derived from the creation of new jobs. Should the company create the jobs called for under the agreement and sustain them for 10 years, the agreement could yield as much as $7.79 million in maximum benefits for IBM.
“These are exactly the sort of highly skilled jobs that North Carolina needs to be recruiting in the 21st century economy, and we’re especially pleased that IBM is expanding its presence in Research Triangle Park,” said Rep. Mickey Michaux, D-Durham.
“North Carolina has a built-in workforce for these kinds of jobs,” said Sen. Floyd McKissick, D-Durham. “We’re committed to making the right investments to create these kinds of opportunities in Durham and across North Carolina.”
Job Development Investment Grants are awarded only to new and expanding businesses and industrial projects whose benefits exceed the costs to the state and which would not be undertaken in North Carolina without the grant.
Other partners who assisted with this project include: the N.C. Department of Commerce, Research Triangle Regional Partnership and Durham County.
Through Gov. Perdue’s JobsNOW initiative, the state continues to work aggressively to create well-paying jobs, train and retrain its workforce, and lay the foundation for a strong and sustainable economic future.
For more information about IBM, including employment opportunities, visit www.ibm.com.