If the research park has began to suffer from the bad figures coming from the United-States, the employment market is still very interesting with more than five hundred positions to fill on the French Riviera.
Intel cuts 5.000 positions this year, Motorola 7.000, Ericsson, Siemens with its semiconductor subsidiary, are planning to layoff : the job market seems to be completely turned round in the telecoms since the beginning of the year. Is Sophia Antipolis, very positioned on that market, hit by the repercussions ? Antoine Garcia, the director of the AG Consulting company, a firm set up at the CICA (International Center for Advanced Communications) in Sophia Antipolis, specialized in consulting for management of human resources in computer sciences and telecommunications.
- Sophianet.com : Is there a deterioration of the job market on the research park ?
Antoine Garcia :I'd like to relativize. There is a particular industry, which is the telecoms' one and which, of course, is suffering from the bad figures coming from the United-States. Of course, some repercussions have already been recorded on the job market in the research park. Still, the ones that are concerned are the executives who are working in the telecommunication industry and who wish to look outside because some projects realized locally or some activities exercised on the site are delayed or are questioned or risk to be so. When some activities have to be relocated because of a new strategy in the company, people with a high level of responsibility loose interest in their mission. That's why they start to look outside.
- Sophianet.com : And do they see outside ?
Antoine Garcia :The market is still interesting, since the telecoms are only a part of the information technologies industry. Today, companies keep on recruiting. I have already noticed more than 500 positions to fill in the Alpes-Maritimes.
- Sophianet.com : What are the companies which are recruiting ?
Antoine Garcia :The big two, as far as recruitment is concerned, are Amadeus and Alcatel. Amadeus in Sophia is recruiting 80 people (every career profile, from development to marketing and human resources, every function is concerned). Alcatel Space, in Cannes, is recruiting 400 people. But among them, only about forty ones in the NICT (as the rest of recruitment is turned to engineers or mechanic, technique, optic technicians, etc). Another big recruiter in the region : IBM La Gaude, today, announces to have around fifty positions to fill.
The information technology service companies keeps on recruiting as well. Thus, in Sophia, Atos Origin is recruiting around sixty people, ADD X around fifty ones, Simlulog fifty, SII as much. But we have to know that there is a big turn over in these companies, with engineers who essentially work under state control in the companies. Other societies which have decided to recruit massively in the next months : these are start-ups like Castify (60 recruitments), Right Vision (50), Ulticom (30), Neurocom (20), Navlink (20), Qwam (5); or big groups like Infineon (12), Texas Instruments (19 positions to fill which will be spread over the time); Lucent (7).
- Sophianet.com : the trend in the coming months ?
Antoine Garcia :the slow down is trendy. Still, institutions with larger view on occupation, as the APEC, think that 2001 will be a good year as well.