IBM could announce 110,000 job cuts this week
If a report from Forbes is true it would be more than nearly twice the size of largest single layoff announcement in US history. The worst ever was also IBM, back in 1993 when they cut 60,000. In 2008, Citigroup also laid off 52,000 workers and General Motors cut 47,000 jobs in its restructuring.
IBM doesn’t release geographic details of its job centers any longer. A few years ago, as the size of their job force in India began to surpass the United States the company became more secretive about the locations of its employees, likely due to the possibility of bad publicity. At this point, it might even be unlikely that 110,000 workers even remain in the United States.
What’s left of the US jobs may be gone, if the report is right. The move is evidently called Project Chrome and says most of the job cuts will be in the United States.
The USA will be hit hard, but so will other locations. IBM’s contractors can expect regular furloughs in 2015. One in four IBMers reading this column will probably start looking for a new job next week. Those employees will all be gone by the end of February.
In the USA mainframe and storage talent will see deep cuts.
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Project Chrome appears to be a pure accounting resource action — driven by the executive suite and designed to make IBM’s financials look better for the next few quarters.
I think this could turn into the biggest story of the week, overshadowing the Fed and leaving a dent in recovery talk. Shares of the company are up 1%, because the market loves layoffs.
Update: IBM dismissed the report but Forbes later shot back, saying it was semantics.
