IBM is once again in the headlines for layoffs, reportedly cutting jobs in its marketing and communications departments.
The news was first reported by CNBC today, but no numbers were mentioned. A person familiar with the matter told CNBC that the layoffs were announced during a brief meeting with affected staff today.
As we noted in an exclusive article last month, IBM has made no secret of its recent layoff plans. Big Blue announced that it is recruiting voluntary retirement employees primarily in Enterprise Operations and Support, Q2C, Finance and Operations (the latter includes communications and marketing).
IBM said last month that the voluntary layoffs stemmed from plans to rebalance its workforce and affected “a very small, single-digit percentage of IBM's global workforce.” Ta. The company said it expects to end 2024 with “approximately” the same level of employment as at the beginning of the year.
“This rebalancing is driven by productivity improvements and our continued efforts to align our workforce with the most in-demand skills among our customers, particularly in areas such as AI and hybrid cloud.” We were announced in February.
IBM has also made no secret of its plans to replace employees with AI. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said in an interview last year that he believes about 30% of IBM's back-office staff, or about 7,800 people, could be replaced by the technology. Stated. Krishna said IBM would likely slow hiring in the affected areas over the next five years, but it was not clear what those areas would be.
Since then, Krishna said, IBM has upskilled its entire workforce in AI and sees those skills as a way to gain economic advantage, rather than lay people off to replace them with AI. He also said.
“Higher productivity means you have a natural economic advantage over your competitors, which means you get more jobs,” Krishna said late last year. “I basically believe that we will get more jobs.”
Asked for comment, IBM would not confirm the news, only restating what it said last month about staffing levels and workforce realignment throughout 2024.
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