Growing in Stamford
In total, Indeed employs more than 1,000 in Stamford, its main East Coast base and joint headquarters since its 2004 founding. The company’s other main offices are in Austin, Texas.
Its new Elm Street offices house about 200 employees. In a statement, the company said it had leased the space to “help with our continuous growth as we evaluate longerterm officespace needs.”
The expansion stems from its burgeoning presence at 177 Broad. When the firm moved there in 2011, it took a half floor for about 50 employees. It now occupies nine levels.
Sales and “client success” customerservice units make up its largest departments in Stamford, while several other divisions also maintain local teams.
A large share of the Stamford workforce is millennialaged. Indeed officials have cited their ability to recruit from top universities in the tristate area and also hire Connecticut natives from leading colleges in other states.
Globally, Indeed employs nearly 9,000. It has added thousands of jobs in the past few years.
A robust jobs market — reflected in a
national unemployment rate that fell in November to a 50year low of 3.5 percent — has catalyzed the demand for Indeed’s services.
About 250 million people visit indeed.com each month, according to the company. Major user activities include postings of jobs and resumes and research of companies and applicants.
Significant state support
The company qualified for a $7 million loan and up to $15 million in tax credits when it announced in July 2017 that it would hire 500 more employees in the city.
It then received a $10 million loan for equipment and leaserelated improvements related to last December’s jobs announcement, which committed the company to adding another 500.
Indeed could have the entirety of the latter loan forgiven if it reaches 1,700 jobs by the end of 2031 and maintains that employment level for at least two years.
The firm could also earn up to $5 million in tax credits through the state Department of Economic and Community Development’s Urban and Industrial Site Reinvestment Tax Credit program.
Other tech firms that have received multimilliondollar state subsidies in the past few years include Ideanomics, formerly known as Seven Stars Cloud, and Infosys. All of those funds were awarded by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration.
“As always, it is critical that we ensure that the state is getting the greatest return on investment possible and that when companies get support from the state, that they commit to staying here and continuing to create jobs,” Simmons said. “We will continue to hold companies accountable for creating the jobs that they promised and will closely scrutinize incentives to ensure the greatest return on investment.”
Widespread hiring
Indeed represents one of a number of major companies that are growing in the city, with tens of millions of dollars in state subsidies cumulatively backing those initiatives.
In the mostprominent expansion, cableandinternet giant Charter Communications is building a new headquarters at 406 Washington Blvd. that overlooks Interstate 95.
Situated a few blocks from its current home at 400 Atlantic St., the approximately 500,000squarefoot glasssheathed structure is set to open in 2021. Eventually, it would be complemented by a second building, according to plans approved earlier this year by city zoning officials.
Other firms receiving state funds to support their local hiring include IT consulting and research firm Gartner, professionalservices firm PwC, realityshow producer ITV America and genomictesting firm Sema4.
Another statesupported relocation, the move of Henkel’s North American consumergoods headquarters from Scottsdale, Ariz., to downtown offices at 200 Elm St., represented the city’s largest corporate arrival of 2017.
All of those undertakings started under deals reached with the Malloy administration. In contrast, Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration has not announced any corporatesubsidies packages.
The lack of new state funds has not deterred new undertakings in the city since Lamont took office. Leading the upcoming projects, WWE announced in March it would relocate its headquarters from the city’s East Side to the downtown by early 2021.
Those companies’ growth “reflects the strength of Stamford as a place to live and work and the amazing tech talent we have in our community,” Simmons said. “I think economic growth and job growth should continue to be our top priority as we work to reduce unemployment in Connecticut and create goodpaying job opportunities across this state.”