Alstom, the French rail behemoth, revealed on Friday that it expects to hire 7,500 people globally this year to satisfy surging demand and record orders of 77.8 billion euros at the end of last year.
According to the corporation, which employs 72,000 salaried employees worldwide, it plans to add 6,000 engineers and managers, as well as 1,500 laborers and technicians.
“These hires are aimed at projects involving rolling stock, signals, and services,” Alstom said in a statement.
“The company doubled in size a year ago (with the purchase of the Canadian Bombardier Transport), we are present in 70 countries and our order sheet is quite big,” the group’s director of human resources, Anne-Sophie Chauveau-Galas, told AFP.
“So we have needs everywhere in the world to implement contracts,” she added.
Alstom announced earlier this month a 1.8-billion-euro ($2-billion) deal to supply up to 200 regional trains to Norway.
Alstom said the framework agreement with Norske Tog includes an initial firm order of 30 trains for 380 million euros.
The company plans to hire 3,900 workers in Europe, 1,700 in Asia-Pacific, 1,500 in North and South America, and 400 in Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, according to the company.
