A number of high-profile tech companies, ranging from Google and Apple to IBM
and Intel, are being probed by federal investigators for their hiring
practices, according to the Wall Street Journal. At issue is whether those
companies’ alleged agreements to not poach each other’s employees constitute a
breach of antitrust laws.
The April 9 article in The
Wall Street Journal suggests that the investigation by the Department
of Justice has been under way for more than a year, with the agency's
microscope trained on those tech companies that have supposedly reached
understandings to not hire away prized workers. Such agreements, depending
on the particulars, have the potential to breach labor laws. Those tech
companies have denied any wrongdoing.
"IBM is one of many companies that
have been contacted by government officials in a broad-ranging inquiry of
technology and non-technology companies regarding hiring practices," IBM
spokesperson Edward Barbini told the Journal, adding that the company is
cooperating with the investigation.
Other companies echoed that sentiment.
"We believe our hiring practices are lawful and don’t harm
competition," Intel spokesperson Chuck Mulloy is quoted as saying.
This is not the first time the federal government has investigated the
hiring practices of certain Silicon Valley giants; in
2009, another inquiry probed into supposed agreements by Google, Apple,
Yahoo and biotech firm Genentech to not poach top-shelf talent. The state of California
does not recognize non-compete agreements, although the laws vary by
state.
A
February report by Computer Economics suggested that technology salaries would
rise by 1.8 percent in 2010. "By historical standards, the 1.8 percent
median pay raise is meager," the firm wrote on its Website, "but in
light of still-high unemployment rates, the finding indicates IT executives are
responding to the need to retain their best workers and boost damaged
morale."
Actual employment figures for the industry have been in substantial flux,
with the federal government reporting a gain of around 22,000 new jobs in the
six-month period leading to March 2010. That month, however, some 7,000
technology jobs were also slashed, suggesting that the effects of the recent
global recession are still being felt in some ways. Nonetheless, at least one
analyst sees the overall job market as positive.
“From October 2009 to February 2010, the five IT bellwether job segments
reported in the DOL statistics grew,” David
Foote, CEO
of IT research and analyst company Foote Partners, told eWEEK. "They
gave back 6,800 of those jobs in March, but that by itself doesn’t necessarily
indicate that the momentum for jobs in this recovery is dissipating."
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