Oldsmar is the home of a technology center operated by The Nielsen Co., which measures TV audiences, consumer trends and other metrics for its clients. Nielsen last year began at the facility after announcing in October 2007 a 10-year global outsourcing agreement valued at US$1.2 billion with .

And while Nielsen cut employees, Mumbai, India-based Tata was increasing its hiring of H-1B workers. Tata received approval for a total of 1,539 H-1B visas during the federal fiscal year that ended last September, according to released this week. That was nearly double the 797 visas that the outsourcing and IT services vendor received in fiscal 2007.

In Oldsmar, "they are still bringing in Indians," said Janice Miller, a city councilwoman who lives about a mile from the Nielsen facility. "And there are a lot of [local] people out of work."

Nielsen received a variety of state and local incentives in 2001 to build the $100 million technology center. Because some of the incentives were pegged to employment levels, the company reported actions such as its layoffs to local officials. But after the public uproar over the cutbacks, Nielsen last July said it would end its use of tax breaks from Oldsmar and Florida's Pinellas County that had saved the company a total of $1.4 million.

Nielsen officials couldn't immediately be reached for comment on the current employment levels at the tech center. On its Web site, the company says 1,500 people work at the facility and details its multimillion-dollar contributions to the local economy. But Nielsen doesn't say how many of those workers are contractors. In July, Nielsen said it expected to have about 1,300 employees in Oldsmar by the end of last year, plus 250 or so contract workers.