New research sheds light on the reasons high-skilled Chinese and Indian workers are returning to their home countries. The researchers cite anecdotal evidence that suggests immigrants are returning home in greater numbers.

InformationWeek, citing an internal document, reports that IBM is helping recently laid off workers find positions with the company overseas. From the document:

"IBM has established Project Match to help you locate potential job opportunities in growth markets where your skills are in demand. Should you accept a position in one of these countries, IBM offers financial assistance to offset moving costs, provides immigration support, such as visa assistance, and other support to help ease the transition of an international move."

Roughly 40 percent of Microsoft's 96,000 employees work outside the United States. The company has subsidiaries in countries from Albania to Zimbabwe. How are the layoffs announced last week impacting Microsoft's employees around the globe?

It's hard to say exactly. The company is "not sharing specific figures that break out US vs. outside of the US," a spokeswoman said via e-mail. But she did confirm earlier reports that Microsoft's India operations had no layoffs during the initial round of cuts that came down Thursday. China, another important research and development hub for the company, was "minimally impacted." The company declined to provide employment numbers for its India and China operations.

A few items to catch up on this morning:

China Executive. Microsoft has named Simon Leung corporate vice president, chairman and CEO of Microsoft Greater China Region (GCR). He replaces Tim Chen, who left in September 2007 to lead the NBA's business in the Greater China region. Leung, who comes to Microsoft from Motorola, where he was a senior exec in charge of the Asia Pacific region, will be responsible for "the development and implementation of an overall regional strategy across all businesses, addressing the needs of the markets as well as the goals and objectives of the company. He will also be responsible for creating synergy among the sales, marketing, R&D, legal, finance, services, and other operations that Microsoft has in Greater China." Leung will work with Ya-Qin Zhang, who will continue as corporate vice president and chairman of the China Research and Development Group. Zhang was also appointed vice chairman of Microsoft GCR. Check out this great profile of Zhang my colleague Kristi Heim wrote this summer.

Yesterday's Agence France-Presse report on a Chinese antitrust investigation into Microsoft and other foreign software companies is being refuted today. AFP itself reported that the China State Intellectual Property Office issued the following statement: "We have never carried out investigations on suspected market monopoly against enterprises, and currently we do not have any plans for this type of work either."

Chinese regulators confirmed an antitrust probe of Microsoft and other software companies, according to an Agence France-Presse report this morning. Updated, 4:55 p.m. with the full Microsoft statement. Updated, Thursday morning: Officials from the same Chinese agency quoted in the AFP story are now saying there is no antitrust probe. Please see this post for an update.