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IBM to Lose 13,000 Jobs

KingDaveRa writes "The BBC is reporting that IBM is losing 13,000 jobs. This comes after disappointing financial results. Most jobs will be going in europe."

9 of 516 comments (clear)

  1. erm by Turn-X+Alphonse · · Score: 4, Informative

    The blerb is misleading. This was reported earlier on BBC news 24 (about 5 hours ago) and they said IBM hasn't said where they will be cutting the jobs back. It could be in several places not just Europe.

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  2. Re:My uncle by Smerity · · Score: 3, Informative

    While yes, your uncle being laid off is certainly not good, it's really not IBM's call at the moment.

    My mum works at IBM and the IBM/Lenovo split is a very short time off now. This is the main transition point for the company. Your uncle losing his job most likely is that Lenovo is unwilling to hire him, not IBM 'firing' him.

    IBM has been making hairline profits on their PCD section for years and years, under very heavy competition. They're changing their whole buisness setup. Losses are to be expected...

  3. Re:Losing your job is hard by Associate · · Score: 1, Informative

    I don't know. I'm quite good at the very little I do. As a matter of fact, I'm one of the few who have gotten a raise every year for the past three. Must being doing something right.

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    Someone hates these cans.
  4. How times have changed by btarval · · Score: 3, Informative
    For almost all of the last century, when you worked at IBM, you were guaranteed a job for life. I don't know if people realize this, but IBM reportedly didn't have layoffs even during the Great Depression (which made the dot-com bust look like peanuts).

    How times have changed. I'm sorry to hear about how this will impact the lives of all those people affected, directly and indirectly.

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    The best way to predict the future is to create it. - Peter Drucker.
  5. Re: My uncle by mikael · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm curious about that -- how do you think it could have been avoided?


    Mrs T. was keen to cut away the dead wood (the declining shipbuilding industries) in order to give tax breaks to the South East. Not a bad thing by itself, but the money saved would have been better invested in retraining and education for the communities in the North of England. At the time of these cutbacks, the local people were crying out for financial assistance in regenerating their cities, but Mrs T. wouldn't help - She was only interested in tax-breaks for the City. As a result the Militant faction of Labour gained power. This led to Mrs T. imposing rate-capping on the various Labour city councils. Both sides (Militant Labour and the Conservatives) realized that this was going to be the class war of the decade and were determined to fight to the bitter end.

    The collateral damage of this war, was that the middle classes left the inner cities a generation ago, moved down South and have never returned. It was only a decade later with financial aid from the EEC that the North of England is slowly regenerating. But the only new business that are setting up are service jobs: supermarkets, pubs, nightclubs and maybe the odd software company,.which usually gets bought out.

    Instead, the communities in the North of England have continued emigration, with everyone who could, having moved down to the South of England, which itself is now becoming overcrowded and overpriced (So overcrowded, that they even building flats and houses on the communal piece of grass in the squares (three streets facing each other).

    The current Labour government is trying to fix this "North-South divide" by dispersing asylum seekers and moving government jobs away from the South of England, but everyone wants to stay where the wealth is.

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  6. Re:My uncle by eric2hill · · Score: 2, Informative

    A better system would be to provide a living wage (as opposed to the welfare dirty word) to those people...

    That's called socialism. This is a democracy. Be sure and understand that distinction as it leads to a government-controlled life.

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  7. Re:Hmm not a suprise by n9891q · · Score: 2, Informative
    Two points.
    (1) the sale of PCD included selling the employees. PCD lay-offs will appear as Lenovo actions.
    (2) PCs are manufactured outside Europe (Mexico, China, etc.).

    The loss of however many jobs is still unfortunate.

  8. Re:My uncle by kayak334 · · Score: 2, Informative

    What you say sounds great, in theory. However, that isn't how the real world or economics works. Robotics and automation lead to cheaper goods for everyone and free up a portion of the workforce to do other things. "Other things" meaning other jobs in the workforce that are in higher demand than the job that just got automated. If you think that we will one day just run out of jobs because everything will be automated, then you need to read a book on basic economics and a book on the human spirit.

  9. Transforming for Growth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    IBM is not "losing" jobs; IBM is firing people.

    No no no, we had an email about it from the EMEA general manager this morning. Apparently we are "Transforming for Growth"!