IBM’s latest layoff count rises to nearly 2,700

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By RICK SMITH, Local Tech Wire editor

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – Reports of layoffs as part of a “resource action” across (NYSE: IBM) operations in the U.S. continue to trickle in after a tsunami on Monday.

News about the blood-letting at IBM worsened Thursday afternoon with word about cuts in two other groups that pushed the job cut total to 2,699.

Global Business Services’ Financial Services group cut 24 positions.

Another GBS unit – Application Innovation Services – is cutting 84 spots.

Earlier updates Thursday included the CIO Operations and Enterprise Portfolio Management group, which is cutting eight workers, according to data reported to , the union seeking to represent IBM workers.

Another 39 were cut in a software development and lab services group.

So far, employees were “RA’d” – Big Blue slang for being laid off – in 28 work groups. The layoff announcements started Monday. And what happens next is unpredictable, according to Lee Conrad with Alliance@IBM.

“I am at a loss right now to guess,” said the retired IBMer, who worked at the company for 26 years, when asked if more layoff news is coming. “It is possible.”

The Alliance@IBM Web site has been flooded with reports and comments from IBM employees about the layoffs.

While IBM cut 10,000 employees in 2009, many came in small actions.

But the size of Monday’s wave caught Conrad by surprise, even though he had been predicting that a “resource action” was planned.

“This is the biggest one-day cut I have seen in a long time,” he told Local Tech Wire and WRAL.com. “It is very disturbing, considering it doesn’t have to happen. Many of these workers are losing their jobs because IBM sees no value in employing American workers."

IBM reported record profits for 2009 despite the global recession and a decline in revenues.

The running total of IBM cuts by work group as reported through Alliance@IBM: