WRAL Tech Wire

More Blue Times at IBM – Another 1,315 Layoffs in ‘Workforce rebalancing’

By RICK SMITH

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – The layoff broom is sweeping through the ranks of employees and contractors at IBM again.

More than 1,300 employees – largely in services operations based in the U.S. – were notified on Tuesday that their jobs are over.

Also affected were an unknown number of contractors.

Alliance IBM, a New York-based group that is trying to unionize IBM’s workforce, first reported the job cuts.


“IBM fires 1315 Employees and an unknown number of contractors, across the country today in IBM Global Services ITD,” the Alliance said.

The group cited the specific work units affected:

• Server Systems Operations

• Technology Integration & Management

• Global Infrastructure & Resource Management

• Americas Delivery Engagement Support

• Security, Asset and Risk Management Americas

• Industrial Sector Delivery

• Financial Services Sector Delivery

• Distribution Sector Delivery

• Communications Sector Delivery

• IBM Global Account Delivery

• Global Network Services Delivery

IBM’s server group employees a significant number of people in the Triangle, where IBM has its second largest concentration of employees outside of its headquarters in New York.

We’re working to confirm how many people are being affected in the Triangle.

An IBM spokesperson told the EETimes that the layoffs are part of a “workforce rebalancing.” IBM employees more than 300,000 people worldwide.
"It's something we do from time to time," the EETimes quoted the spokesman as saying. The total of jobs affected was described as "only a small number of workers."
Tell that to the people affected.

IBM typically doesn’t announce layoff news, but a spokesperson for Big Blue told The Wall Street Journal and another New York newspaper that the reductions should not come as a surprise. In its last quarterly earnings report, he noted that IBM would be “putting in place a series of actions to address our U.S. cost base.”

However, the cutbacks is major news to those people who are affected.

The old saying goes something like: “A recession is when my neighbor loses his/her job. A depression is when I lose mine.”

The layoffs at IBM come soon after Lenovo announced another big reduction of 300 or so of former IBMers from its ranks. Those folks transitioned to Lenovo when IBM sold off its PC division two years ago.

Fortunately in the Triangle, unemployment is well under 4 percent and demand for high tech workers is good with companies such as Network Appliance looking to grow.

The Skinny

WRAL Local Tech Wire Publisher and Editor Rick Smith dishes out tidbits from the local technology sector. Read more articles…