No End to Job Cuts: IBM to Slash 9,000 Roles, Boeing Lays Off 180, Claim Reports

New Delhi: IBM (International Business Machines), widely known as ‘Big Blue’, is reportedly cutting jobs across various locations in the United States as part of an ongoing workforce reduction effort, said reports. The tech industry has seen a wave of layoffs this year, affecting thousands of employees, and IBM is the latest company to make significant cuts.

According to a report by The Register, IBM's job reductions target approximately a quarter of the workforce within its Classic Cloud operations. Although the exact number of employees affected remains undisclosed, the layoffs are expected to impact thousands of workers. The company has yet to make an official announcement regarding the move.

The layoffs are reportedly affecting multiple departments, including consulting, CSR initiatives, cloud infrastructure, sales, and employees working on internal systems under the IBM CIO. The report indicates that some employees were asked to leave IBM offices in New York City, Dallas (Texas), and California, while others were notified individually by their managers.

IBM’s Chief Financial Officer, James Kavanaugh, had previously hinted at possible job reductions as part of the company’s workforce rebalancing strategy. The Register’s report suggests that the layoffs are either a specific round of job cuts or part of an ongoing effort to downsize teams working on older product lines.

Tech Layoffs Continue Across Industries

IBM’s decision comes as major companies across the tech and aviation sectors continue to downsize. U.S. aerospace giant Boeing has also reduced its workforce, laying off up to 180 employees at its Engineering Technology Centre in Bengaluru, India.

Boeing, which employs around 7,000 people in India, has been undergoing a global workforce reduction, cutting approximately 10% of its employees last year.

Similarly, HP recently announced layoffs of 2,000 employees as part of a cost-cutting and restructuring effort, citing struggles in keeping up with the artificial intelligence (AI) race.

While IBM has not officially confirmed the scale of its layoffs, estimates based on previous announcements suggest that around 9,000 employees could be at risk in 2025. 

With economic uncertainties and restructuring efforts continuing across industries, the trend of mass layoffs in the tech sector shows no signs of slowing down.