IBM expected to cut more US jobs

IBM will soon lay off a large number of US-based employees from its global business services unit, according to a report.

By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News -- Electronic News, 3/25/2009

IBM Corp will soon lay off a large number of US-based employees from its global-business services unit, according to a report out this morning.

Much of the work handled by the employees expected to be cut is being transferred to IBM employees in India, according to the Wall Street Journal report, which cites "people familiar with the situation."

IBM did not immediately return requests for comment from Electronic News.

The report follows on claims from Alliance@IBM, an IBM employee organization that is not supported by the company, earlier this year that Big Blue had cut 3000 North America-based employees.  In 2008, IBM confirmed that its East Fishkill, NY, and Burlington, VT, locations were subject to workforce changes.

According to the Alliance@IBM Web site this morning, an "offshoring alert" has been posted regarding working directly with IBM employees from India to "facilitate knowledge transfer to prepare for migration of specific work activities to global delivery counterparts later in 2009."

Alliance@IBM further posted a "job cut alert" for March 26 and projects on its site that IBM is expected to hire 18,873 people in India this year and 3,514 people in the United States.

According to IBM's 2008 annual report, the company employed 398,455 people globally as of the end of last year, compared to 386,558 people at the end of 2007.

In 2008, the US remained the largest IBM employee base with 115,000 workers, according to the report. IBM further stated in the 2008 report that it "continues to add resources aggressively in emerging markets, particularly in the BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India, and China," where the company's employment totals approximately 113,000.

Today's Wall Street Journal report follows on reports published last week that claim IBM is in talks to acquire Sun Microsystems.