The head of US telecoms giant AT&T has caused outrage in the United States by saying his company was having little success finding enough skilled workers to fill the 5,000 customer service jobs the company promised in 2006 to return to the US from India.

"We're having trouble finding the numbers that we need with the skills that are required to do these jobs," CEO Randall Stephenson told a meeting at corporate HQ. Only 1,400 of the 5,000 jobs have been returned to the US so far.

Referring to poorly skilled school-leavers in the US, he said: "If I had a business that half the product we turned out was defective or you couldn't put into the marketplace, I would shut that business down."

"We're able to do new product engineering in Bangalore as easily as we're able to do it in Austin, Texas," he added. "I know you don't like hearing that, but that's the way it is."

Stephenson said that the solution was a stronger US focus on education.

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