IBM confirmed, it is cutting an unspecified number of jobs, but wouldn’t provide details related to location, departments, or the number of employees involved. The company framed it in terms of replacing people with more needed skills as it tries to regroup under new CEO Arvind Krishna.
Several business media sites, including the Wall Street Journal and Fox Business, reported that IBM had confirmed the layoffs. The reports indicated that the layoffs spanned job types, product divisions, and corporate locations across the U.S.
According to media sources, layoffs also include a few hundred jobs in India, where IBM has about a third of its global strength of 350,000. Many of those impacted are said to be mid-level executives including project managers and above, some of who have spent over a decade in the company.
According to a report, an affected employee said to ET “I was asked to resign as there aren’t enough projects. I was given three months’ basic salary as severance.”
The company said in a statement, “IBM’s work in a highly competitive marketplace requires flexibility to constantly remix high-value skills, and our workforce decisions are made in the long-term interests of our business.”
IMB didn’t disclose the scale of the job losses. A person familiar with the company’s plans said they are thought to affect several thousand people. IBM had around 352,600 employees as of the end of last year, according to a January regulatory filing.
Subscribe to our newsletter!
