IBM to cut 1,315 jobs in U.S., union says

[Omaha Steve]

http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2007-05-01T230444Z_01_N01263340_RTRIDST_0_IBM-JOBS.XML

IBM to cut 1,315 jobs in U.S., union says
Tue May 1, 2007 7:04pm ET

By Philipp Gollner

SAN FRANCISCO, May 1 (Reuters) - IBM (IBM.N: Quote, Profile , Research), the world's largest technology services company, is cutting 1,315 services-related jobs in the United States, a union trying to organize IBM workers said on Tuesday.

The cuts affect employees in a variety of areas including computer server systems operations, technology integration and management and financial services, said the Alliance at IBM, a union group affiliated with the Communications Workers of America, on its Web site.

Union representatives were not immediately available for comment. International Business Machines Corp. had 355,766 employees worldwide at the end of 2006, according to its annual report.

IBM spokesman John Bukovinsky said he could not confirm the number of job cuts. He said such cuts "should not be a surprise" as the company indicated after its latest earnings report on April 17 that it planned to cut costs in the United States.

Bukovinsky said the company does not anticipate a charge against earnings for the job cuts, which he characterized as normal for a services business that is dependent on the changing demands of clients.

"We're putting in place a series of actions to address our U.S. cost base, including a basic focus on resource and cost management disciplines and rebalancing of resources as we execute our global resource strategy," Chief Financial Officer Mark Loughridge said on a conference call with analysts on April 17, according to a transcript of the call.

FULL story at link.

[Lithos]

1. Cringley says this will go to 100,000

by end of year in the US alone. However, I think that would qualify as the full US workforce. Definitely though there is a major effort to move most of IBM's workforce overseas. Will prove interesting to see if they can maintain the type of support demanded by the various companies who have signed contracts with them.

L-

[MannyGoldstein]

2. No Worries!

The US deaths from 'free' trade food and drugs will keep the unemployment rate from going up - fewer jobs, but living people.

See! It's Adam Smith's unseen hand.

Coming soon - Soylent Green is people!

[shenmue]

3. These bastards

:puke:

:grr:

:nuke:

[Craftsman]

4. IBM has been circling the bowl for years.

This does not surprise me.