News round-up: January 13

Another day, another news round-up here at Consult THIS.

Charlotte, North Carolina got a welcome jobs boost today as Capgemini announced that it will bring 550 jobs to the city over the next three years. In exchange for the French consultancy's investment (the new jobs will pay an average of $62,000 annually), the state of North Carolina has agreed to fork over up to $4 million in incentives. The Charlotte Observer called the hiring spree "the first major sign of job creation in the Charlotte area this year."

CRA International (Charles River Associates) unveiled its fourth quarter results today to a collective sigh of relief; this quarter's revenue growth of 1.7 percent halts a slide that has seen revenue decline consistently for more than two years. Overall earnings fell 11 percent from last year, though CRA representatives attributed the decline to "restructuring costs" (they are consultants, anyway). CRA, a public company, has seen its stock value fall 11 percent in the past year.

In other news: as reported in-depth on Consult THIS earlier today, the municipal government of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania announced that it will hire Novak Consulting Group to lead the state capital out of its economic malaise; former Washington, DC mayor Adrian Fenty was hired as a consultant-of-all-trades by Philadelphia accounting/consulting firm Heffler, Radetich & Saitta LLP; and the good people at The Boston Consulting Group India released a white paper predicting the country's telecom industry will smash the $100 billion mark in five years.

On to Friday!

For more information:

WSJ
WSJ
Washington City Paper
Indian telecom sector to grow to $100 bn by 2015: BCG