IBM has begun dismissing US workers as part of a $1 billion restructuring to help the company meet profit goals as it adapts to shifts in the technology industry.
Workers in New York, Vermont, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma and North Carolina were fired last week, according to employee group Alliance@IBM.
The computer group will not disclose how many of the 431,212 workers it had at the end of last year would eventually lose their jobs in the shake-up, which has yet to hit some other countries.
Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Bernstein Research, has estimated the number will be "at least 13,000", while a group claiming to represent IBM employees has warned that as many as 15,000 jobs will go.
Job cuts have already taken place in India and Europe and reached the US last week.
The cuts follow disappointing fourth-quarter sales, which added to concerns on Wall Street that IBM was missing out on some of the fastest-growing markets in cloud computing.
Revenue fell almost 5 per cent last year. – (Bloomberg / Financial Times Limited)
