IBM To Axe 8,000 Staff In Europe – Report

Staff at IBM are risk of losing their jobs after it was reported that Big Blue is planning to axe thousands of jobs in Europe.

According to a report at Channel Partner Insight, quoting a source close to the matter, IBM is planning to lay off 8,000 employees in Europe, with roughly 2,000 positions expected to be lost in the UK and Ireland.

It comes after other sources had told the Register this month that IBM was carrying out a ‘consultation process’ (i.e. job cut review) at its Global Business Services division.

European staff

Those job cuts were reportedly targeted at Services staff across Northern Europe, with 100 positions expected to be axed in the UK alone.

But now according to Channel Partner Insight, the headcount reduction at Big Blue is expected to be much larger with 8,000 positions at risk.

Besides the 2,000 job cuts in UK and Ireland, cuts in IBM France and IBM Italy are also expected to be announced to the regional country Hqs.

IBM Germany has already reportedly announced its intentions to cut around 2,300 jobs in that market.

It comes after Big Blue has previously warned investors it would reduce it workforce due to the global Covid-19 pandemic.

In 2021 it should be noted that IBM already said it would split its IT services business off into a new company, to focus on cloud and AI.

Job losses

IBM has undertaken many other job cutting rounds in recent years.

In May this year IBM confirmed it was once again swinging the headcount axe on its unfortunate staff.

The firm remained coy about the exact number of jobs it would cut, but reports at the time suggested it could be in the thousands.

IBM also is understood to have axed UK personnel in both GBS and Global Technology Services just months ago.

Indeed, it is reported that 180 people recently left GBS.