International Business Machines (IBM) Corp plans to lay off about 5,000 US employees, with many of the jobs being transferred to India, a media report said on Thursday.
IBM has been steadily building its workforce in India and other locations while reducing the number of workers based in the US, the Wall Street Journal said citing people familiar with the situation.
Foreign workers accounted for 71 per cent of its nearly 400,000 employees at the start of the year, up from about 65 per cent in 2006.
As US employers have shed millions of jobs in recent months, workers and politicians have stepped up their criticisms of the practice with little impact, the Journal said.
Shifting work to lower-cost countries has helped IBM post profits in its services business, its largest in terms of revenue and employment.
IBM employed 74,000 people in India in 2007, the latest figures available.
IBM’s latest round of cuts show that even firms that have so far navigated the global recession profitably are continuing to slash costs, the daily said. In January, IBM reported $4.42 billion in quarterly profit.
Many of the IBM job cuts are to take place in its global application-services group, which writes specialised software for businesses. An IBM spokesman declined to comment, the paper said. The company has said it expects to spend about $300 million to $400 million on severance-related charges this year, with most of it in the first half.
{{/usCountry}}Many of the IBM job cuts are to take place in its global application-services group, which writes specialised software for businesses. An IBM spokesman declined to comment, the paper said. The company has said it expects to spend about $300 million to $400 million on severance-related charges this year, with most of it in the first half.
{{/usCountry}}