The latest unemployment figures from the state offered a bit of encouraging news with most counties showing some hiring.

So who's doing the hiring? Here's a quick look:

HCL Technologies announced this morning that it would hire 100 people in Cary to handle work relating to a contract it signed with Merck. HCL provides IT services as well as other engineering and business services. Find out more about the company
here.

In Durham, AW North Carolina plans to hire 360 people over the next two years. The company makes transmissions for Toyotas. Keep track of jobs here.

HCL Technologies, an Indian consulting firm with offices in Cary, has signed a five-year, $500 million deal with pharmaceutical giant Merck that will create at least 100 new jobs in the Triangle.

HCL is expanding its existing relationship with Merck. Since 2004, the company has provided Merck with IT services, remote infrastructure management, and other engineering and business services.

"Obviously, we are very pleased that the work that we've done for them for the last few years has been satisfactory," said Shami Khorana, president of HCL Americas. "They've had the confidence in us to not only renew the contract but enlarge the relationship considerably."

HCL America, a subsidiary of HCL Technologies, announced in 2008 that it would create 513 jobs in Wake County over the next five years.

The state promised the company a grant worth as much as $5.07 million to win the expansion.

HCL employs about 90 people, mostly software engineers, at its offices in the Regency Lakeview building in Cary. Khorana said the company expects to add 50 to 60 new employees over the next three months.

He said the company still expects to meet its goal of hiring 513 people within five years.