Telecom's loss is Xero's gain

It appears every cloud has a silver lining, with Xero becoming the ray of light for Telecom workers facing job cuts.

Fresh from claims by the Labour Party that the telco will cut up to 1,500 jobs later this month, Xero founder and CEO Rod Drury offered hope to the cast off employees.

"We're looking for between 100 and 200 new staff members across the board this year," Drury confirmed to TechDay earlier this afternoon. "And I expect there will be good people at Telecom.

"There is very much a shortage of good people in New Zealand."

Drury's words of encouragement comes at a much-needed time, with Telecom already cutting 373 permanent roles across the company.

The cloud-based computing company became New Zealand's latest billion dollar company earlier this month, after shares climbed to a record high.

But despite the success of the past twelve months, Drury believes the company isn't quite large enough enough to consider a U.S. listing.

This appears a formality however, and with former Google executive Stuart McLean on board as the company's new chief revenue officer, Xero looks like an attractive proposition for the unfortunate folk left searching for a job within the coming weeks.