IBM Cuts 15,600 Jobs

[quirky]

linkie

 

[diskop]

yeeesh, hopefully the market picks up soon

 

[Alphathree33]

That's a lot of jobs.

 

[quirky]

to think working my ass off in college for 5 years and being unable to find a tech job..........

 

[Electrode]

Well, someone had to pay for the 75GXP fiasco.

 

[Stallion]

I think Boeing is over the 20,000 layoff mark , on it's way to 30,000 , and I'm still employed so far. But damn, that is bad news huh....

 

[AU Tiger]

And the IT market continues to get worse. Someday, programmers will be making the same wages as forklift operators, if not less.

 

[satori]

I saw the breakdown for the cuts. Around 14K for the services group. What exactly does that group do? I guess I can call up some of my friends who work in the database consultancy group. I know they were a little worried earlier this year about layoffs, but they're all still working last I heard.

I'm also curious who's getting cut from the microelectronics division. Design? Marketing? Sales? Wish the article was more specific.

 

[satori]

Stallion: Yah, the Boeing cuts are pretty damn freaky. These cuts are supposedly going to be permanent too, right? You figure with a company like IBM, once things pick up, or get back to normal, these jobs will come back.

 

[dman]

The company will be adding about 30,000 workers with its planned acquisition of consulting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers for $3.5 billion in cash and stock.

That's always a nice thing for employees to hear, we're cutting 15K jobs but we'll be adding 30K from our new aquisition. And of course, they'll probably cut a few thousand there too.

What exactly does that (services) group do?

Essentially, Outsourcing of IT business for other companies (bidding, architecting, sizing, and operations, etc). Many (most) of the employees are aquisitions from outsourcings.

 

[AU Tiger]

Services includes the IBM consultants. These are the guys that used to get paid big dollar to come in and help a company setup their website and configure the products that IBM sales sold. I don't believe these are the same as IBM's Global Services consultant group though.

 

[T2T III]

Around 14K for the services group. What exactly does that group do?

This could easily be the people who work in data centers and other I.T. shops where companies have outsourced their operations to IBM. I'm sure "services group" is pretty far reaching including: consultants, data center operators, applications developers, database administrators, network personnel and PC support personnel.

 

[Stallion]

Originally posted by: satori
Stallion: Yah, the Boeing cuts are pretty damn freaky. These cuts are supposedly going to be permanent too, right? You figure with a company like IBM, once things pick up, or get back to normal, these jobs will come back.

Yep, Boeing says they are gone for good... No more mass rehire/recall when things pick up. Now we have a Contract vote in September as well. Looks like boeing might have us ( the IAM) right where they want us...

 

[satori]

These are the guys that used to get paid big dollar to come in and help a company setup their website and configure the products that IBM sales sold

Ouch...that sort of sounds like what my friends were doing. 2 of them were down in California recently, consulting for Kaiser. Not sure if they were paid the big bucks, but they definitely had the nicest client-paid apartments I'd ever seen (high-rise not too far from PacBell park).

Yep, Boeing says they are gone for good... No more mass rehire/recall when things pick up

You know, it's gonna be weird with those cuts. Everyone always seemed to know someone working there... Sorta like how it is with Microsoft now. Just off the top of my head, I can think of a friend's dad, friend's husband, dude from college, etc... Seattle's definitely changing...

 

[cnwk64]

Originally posted by: AU Tiger
And the IT market continues to get worse. Someday, programmers will be making the same wages as forklift operators, if not less.

If you are a very good forklift ops. you already make more than average programmers...

 

[satori]

cnwk64: Don't forget about being a dock worker. A recent article I read stated that regular guys got around 100K, with foremen pulling down something like 150K... :Q And these guys were going on strike!!!

 

[athithi]

Originally posted by: AU Tiger
Services includes the IBM consultants. These are the guys that used to get paid big dollar to come in and help a company setup their website and configure the products that IBM sales sold. I don't believe these are the same as IBM's Global Services consultant group though.

AU Tiger, I work in IGS (IBM Global Services). Why do you say Services is different from IGS, please elaborate? Our client is internal though....damn, the last cut came when I was about to go in to negotiate on a house deal and had to drop that. I escaped, probably because I am a contractor and not an employee (I don't come in IBM payrolls). Hope that's a good thing for now 14k jobs....if it is IGS, chances are some people I know aren't going to be around long

 

[AU Tiger]

I was thinking IGS would have been mentioned specifically in the article if the employees were coming from that group. I believe last round of layoffs specifically mentioned IGS in the articles. Of course this article may just not have enough details to know if IGS was affected.

 

[dirtboy]

Originally posted by: satori
cnwk64: Don't forget about being a dock worker. A recent article I read stated that regular guys got around 100K, with foremen pulling down something like 150K... :Q And these guys were going on strike!!!

hmmm...Maybe I'll offer to be a dockman for $99k hehehe... where's this at??

 

[satori]

dirtboy: Amazingly enough, I was just surfing on the Seattle Times website and they've got an article on the longshoremen strike. Talk about coincidences...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/134512149_longshore13.html

Anyways, looks like it's for the entire west coast.

 

[dirtboy]

Of course their jobs are probably pretty tough...I'd be willing to do alot of jobs for 100k.

 

[Adul]

for a 100k i would be willing to work my ass off at a doc. man how does one get in

 

[dirtboy]

I dunno, I couldn't find any hard evidence that longshorman make that kind of money. No doubt being unionized helps, but other than putting in long hours, I found nothing that said they made a whole lot more than $40k.

 

[HiveMaster]

Read closely:

IBM said in the regulatory filing that about 3 percent of the 1,400 workers in its microelectronics business had left the company as of June 30. The remainder are expected to leave the company by the end of this month.

About 57 percent of the 14,213 people had left the company as of June 30, IBM said. The majority of the remaining people will have left the company by the end of September.

One thing companies do is they have natural attrition and they count it as layoffs to make the bottom line look better to investors. My company is supposed to lay off another couple hundred by Oct 1, but we already know internally that they are just not going to fill slots that come open thru retirements, firings, and people who just plain quit.

Yeah some people are losing their jobs...but remember the fuzzy accounting makes it look worse than it really is...

 

[rh71]

<-- works in IGS. "Services" is essentially all of IGS. We were in a weekly teleconference the other day and he told us all how he has until 9/20 to find another job. We all looked at each other like... holy $#!T that sucks. We were all watching our backs the first-go-round... but this one seems even harsher.

IGS covers anyone in the company not in Hardware/Microelectronics/Emerging Technologies, etc. Yikes!

<-- hopes for at least 1 more year on the job.