Microsoft said on Friday it was raising pay for employees to retain “top talent” in the fiercely competitive market for skilled technology workers.
“Through our history, we have been THE place people came when they wanted to make a difference in the world through software, hardware and services,” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in a statement.
“This is as true today as it has been at any time in our history, and the changes we’re rolling out today will help ensure Microsoft continues to be the place that top talent comes to change the world,” Ballmer wrote.
A Microsoft spokesman would not disclose the amount of the wage hikes or how they were being doled out.
The raises come as Internet titans and fledgling startups compete for software and hardware engineers.
Google has awarded nearly US$9 million in bonuses and another US$50 million in equity to four top executives, according to a recent filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Internet giant announced in January that it would hire a record number of people this year, taking on more than 6,000 workers “across the board and around the globe.”
Google added more than 4,500 “Googlers” to its employee ranks last year and plans to easily eclipse that figure this year, senior vice president of engineering and research Alan Eustace said in a blog post.
Microblogging service Twitter said it was taking new hires on weekly. The company also said on Friday it had inked a deal to move into a new nest in a chronically downtrodden part of downtown San Francisco that local officials are eager to rehabilitate.
“Happy to say that Twitter is staying in San Francisco,” spokesman Ali Rowghani said in a message fired off at the popular microblogging service. “We’ve signed a lease to move our HQ to the Central Market area.”
San Francisco leaders recently approved a payroll tax break aimed at keeping Twitter in the city and encouraging the startup and other technology firms to roost in a section of downtown that has long resisted economic revitalization.
Companies in what are referred to locally as the Mid Market Street and Tenderloin areas will not have to pay any payroll taxes on new hires for the first six years.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last