IBM to cut 8,100 jobs

IBM’s latest job cuts mark a decisive turn in the company’s evolution, signaling a shift from traditional operations to an AI- and cloud-driven future. Thousands of employees worldwide face uncertainty as roles tied to legacy systems disappear, while new positions emerge in cutting-edge technology.

In early November 2025, IBM announced plans to cut a “low single-digit percentage” of its 270,000-strong workforce, affecting thousands of positions globally. While U.S. employment remains largely stable, the majority of reductions will occur in Europe and Asia. The restructuring emphasizes AI, hybrid cloud, and software services, echoing a broader trend among Big Tech companies adapting to the AI era.

The layoffs primarily target employees without AI or cloud expertise. Mid-career professionals with four to twelve years of experience face heightened risk, recalling past HR memos referencing “dinobabies”—senior staff encouraged to leave. Back-office roles in HR, finance, procurement, and legacy infrastructure, along with consulting and marketing positions not tied to AI, are being phased out.

While some employees face cuts, IBM is actively hiring for AI and cloud roles, particularly in India and select U.S. hubs. Job postings in India have surged, reflecting a strategy to shift international work to lower-cost regions. U.S. hiring now concentrates on strategic areas such as WatsonX development and hybrid cloud architecture.

This global workforce realignment mirrors moves by peers. Amazon recently announced up to 30,000 corporate layoffs, and Meta cut around 600 positions from its Superintelligence Labs division. Meanwhile, workers across the tech sector report mental health strains due to layoff uncertainty, with 77% citing worsened well-being tied to job anxiety.

IBM to cut 10,000 to 15,000 workers

IBM, in the midst of its massive transformation from a hardware-and-software-and-services company to a cloud-and-services company, is cutting jobs worldwide. The goal, besides remaking the 103-year-old tech giant into a modern IT leader that can take on Amazon Web Services and a flock of younger tech vendors, is to deliver on the promise to deliver $20 (non-GAAP) earnings per share by the end of 2015. Accomplishing that goal would be quite the feat, given the past few quarters of disappointing performance.

For IBM’s fourth quarter ending December 31, earnings — excluding some items — hit $6.13 per share, exceeding estimates of $6.00, according to Bloomberg. The trouble lay in revenue, which dipped for the seventh consecutive quarter — to $27.7 billion, missing estimates of $28.3 billion.

As for the job cuts, it’s not as if IBM didn’t warn us. On last month’s Q4 earnings call, CFO Martin Shroeter said IBM had reserved $1 billion to cover workforce reductions. Estimating that each person laid off costs IBM about $70,000, Sanford Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi told USA Today the company could cut 10,000 to 15,000 workers out of a total headcount of about 400,000.

Lee Conrad, a  former IBMer who is now the national coordinator of Alliance@IBM, a watchdog group affiliated with a union of IBM workers, said he is hearing of job cuts in several countries, the largest seemingly in India. “Reports from angry IBM India workers started flooding into the Alliance website 3 days ago,” he said via email on Thursday. “Hardest hit was the Systems Technology Group. Today we are hearing of job cuts in IBM India Software Group.”

The Alliance’s latest, admittedly incomplete list includes 1,500 jobs cut in Brazil, 600 in Argentina, 480 in France, 430 in Italy, 240 in the Netherlands and 105 in Belgium. Cuts in European countries must be negotiated, so the numbers could change, Conrad said.

Earlier this month, the company announced the sale of its X86 server business to Lenovo, and some of the latest job cuts in India and elsewhere relate to that move. The company is also reportedly looking to sell off its SDN and chip business.

“It’s important to look at what IBM is doing holistically. It’s jettisoning anything that’s not cloud or Internet of Things,”  said analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy. And yes, he acknowledged, the company needs to hit that magical $20 EPS number as well.