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RALEIGH – Gov. Bev Perdue announced Thursday that IBM will hire 600 new workers over the next two years in Research Triangle Park.

The average pay for the new jobs will be $50,000 a year, not including benefits.

The company will invest $3.7 million to open a managed business process service center.

With statewide unemployment at 9.9 percent, labor market experts said the jobs can't come soon enough.

“Very clearly, we have the available work force right now for them,” said David Clegg, deputy chairman and chief operating officer of the Employment Security Commission of North Carolina. “I wish they could hire all 600 of them next week because I guarantee you they could fill every one of those positions with a highly qualified applicant.”

Under a Job Development Investment Grant, if IBM keeps the 600 new positions for 10 years, the company would earn $7.79 million in state incentives.

Critics argue with North Carolina cutting back to balance the budget, the state shouldn't give away millions in incentives.

“IBM's profits last year in a down economy were around $14 billion,” said Bob Orr, executive director for the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law and a retired N.C. Supreme Court judge. “You know they're not making a business decision based on the sums of money the state is giving them in the form of incentives, but that is money we could be hiring teachers with or helping our mental health system.”

Those in favor of incentives argue states have to offer them to keep big companies, like IBM.

“Clearly the incentives business is a national and international issue,” Clegg said. “It's a reality of North Carolina's Department of Commerce. What we at the Employment Security Commission are concerned with is North Carolina's 4.5 million person labor market.”

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