American financial services firm Goldman Sachs recently said that it will honour all the jobs and internship offers made to 1,460 Indian graduates and students amid coronavirus pandemic.
According to a Reuters report, the US-based bank has said that it will honour all the 1,460 offers, which is equivalent to quarter of its workforce in the country, forging ahead with expansion plans despite uncertainties due to the pandemic.
As per Gunjan Samtani, Head of Goldman Sachs Services India, half of the 1,460 are full-time job offers at the company’s technology center in Bangalore and the rest are internships. Bangalore center is now the company’s second-biggest office globally.
He also said the bank was putting in place contingency plans that could allow it to move 40%-50% of its workforce in India back to its offices when the country’s stringent lockdown ends.
The recent development from the firm comes at a time when international and domestic firms both withdrew offers it made to students and have been laying off significant number of staff as they brace for the recession.
“We are honoring each and every commitment that we make to our incoming interns and our college grads,” Samtani said.
However, U.S. and European banks have postponed decisions about staff cuts, for now, saying they are unsure how long the coronavirus outbreak will hurt the economy and are worried about being unprepared if business suddenly snaps back.
A spokesman for Goldman stressed that these offers are not new hires and the bank was honoring only existing offers. He said the bank was still recruiting globally, but proceeding more cautiously in light of the crisis.
Over the past decade, large U.S. banks and financial institutions including JPMorgan and Wells Fargo have established a large presence in low-cost destinations like India, hiring thousands of graduates and experienced executives across technology, finance, accounting, and human resources.
Goldman last year launched a $250-million office campus in Bengaluru that can seat up to 9,000 employees. The facility currently houses roughly 5,500 workers.
