IBM Offers To Move Laid Off Workers To India. InformationWeek says IBM, which has laid off more than 4,000 American workers in the last month, is offering them a way to stay employed.

The climate is warm, there's no shortage of exotic food, and the cost of living is rock bottom. That's IBM's pitch to the laid-off American workers it's offering to place in India. The catch: Wages in the country are pennies-on-the-dollar compared to U.S. salaries.

Under a program called Project Match, IBM will help workers laid off from domestic sites obtain travel and visa assistance for countries in which Big Blue has openings. Mostly that's developing markets like India, China, and Brazil.

"IBM has established Project Match to help you locate potential job opportunities in growth markets where your skills are in demand," IBM says in an internal notice on the initiative. "Should you accept a position in one of these countries, IBM offers financial assistance to offset moving costs, provides immigration support, such as visa assistance, and other support to help ease the transition of an international move." ...

In addition to India, China, and Brazil, IBM is offering to relocate redundant U.S. workers to a number of other developing markets, including Mexico, the Czech Republic, Russia, South Africa, Nigeria, and the United Arab Emirates, according to the notice, which was obtained Monday by InformationWeek.

IBM sees it kind of like the Peace Corps -- a chance to live and work in a developing country:

"It's more of a vehicle for people who want to expand their life experience by working somewhere else," said the spokesman. "A lot of people want to work in India."

Update: Coincidentally, Doc Searls links to a post by his friend Brian Benz that indicates the ranks of those let go from IBM are growing:

I'm one of the IBM layoffs:

A hard post to write.....My position as EAS WW Principal Consultant at IBM has been eliminated. Apparently I'm one of about 15,000 IBM staff let go this and next week.