{"id":406238,"date":"2026-03-27T05:44:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T05:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/406238\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T05:44:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T05:44:25","slug":"how-many-employees-work-at-ibm-in-2026-its-layoffs-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/406238\/","title":{"rendered":"How many employees work at IBM in 2026? Its layoffs explained"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">In business since 1911, International Business Machines (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thestreet.com\/quote\/IBM\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:IBM;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;IBM&quot;}\" class=\"link \">IBM<\/a>) became one of the world\u2019s leading technology companies through generations of visionary scientists and engineers. These highly skilled workers shaped the company from a data-processing business into a mainframe computing giant and, more recently, a dominant force in hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thestreet.com\/tag\/artificial-intelligence\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:AI;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;AI&quot;}\" class=\"link \">AI<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Under the leadership of current CEO Arvind Krishna, a quantum computing expert with a PhD in electrical engineering, IBM acquired Red Hat, an open-source software giant, in 2019. Doing so transformed the aging powerhouse into a major player in the hybrid cloud infrastructure sphere and enabled it to compete with OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Shares <a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/quote\/IBM\/history\/?period1=1735603200&amp;period2=1767139200\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-ylk=\"slk:climbed 40% in 2025;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;climbed 40% in 2025&quot;}\" class=\"link \" target=\"_blank\">climbed 40% in 2025<\/a> alone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">But this strategic shift came at a price: reshaping its present-day workforce. The tech giant has cut thousands of jobs over the past few years as it has pivoted towards higher-growth areas, such as cloud and AI.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">In many ways, this embodies economist Joseph Schumpeter\u2019s concept of \u201ccreative destruction,\u201d when old ways of working are dismantled to create new, more efficient ones.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">So, how big is IBM\u2019s workforce now?<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">According to IBM\u2019s most <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ibm.com\/downloads\/documents\/us-en\/15db52348fc203a4\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:recent annual report;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;recent annual report&quot;}\" class=\"link \">recent annual report<\/a>, the company\u2019s workforce totaled 286,800 employees as of December 31, 2025. This number includes workers at IBM (264,300), its less-than-wholly-owned subsidiaries (8,700), and temporary and part-time workers (13,800).<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ibm.com\/downloads\/documents\/us-en\/1227c12d3a38b173\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:In 2024;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;In 2024&quot;}\" class=\"link \">In 2024<\/a>, IBM reported a total count of 293,400 workers, which included employees at IBM (270,300), its less-than-wholly-owned subsidiaries (8,900), and temporary and part-time workers (14,200).<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">This suggests the company reduced its workforce by around 2%, making cuts across its wholly owned and less-than-wholly owned subsidiaries, while at the same time increasing its temporary and part-time headcount.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/news\/chevron-good-long-term-investment-161800361.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Related: Is Chevron a good long-term investment? Its buy-and-hold prospects explained;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Related&quot;}\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Related: Is Chevron a good long-term investment? Its buy-and-hold prospects explained<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">IBM, also known as Big Blue because of its massive size and the color of its logo, has its corporate headquarters in Armonk, New York, about 35 miles from Manhattan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">The company also has offices and research labs on campuses in more than 170 countries across Europe, Asia, the Americas, Africa, and Australia.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"yf-1p2hw41\">\n<li class=\"yf-1p2hw41\">\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Its United States office locations include New York City, Austin, Research Triangle Park (North Carolina), Silicon Valley, and Rochester (Minnesota).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"yf-1p2hw41\">\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">IBM\u2019s global hubs are located in Tokyo, Montreal, and Munich.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/news\/many-employees-does-apple-deeper-150700096.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Related: How many employees does Apple have? A deeper look at the tech giant&#039;s workforce;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Related&quot;}\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Related: How many employees does Apple have? A deeper look at the tech giant&#8217;s workforce<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">On November 4, 2025, IBM announced it would be cutting thousands of workers by the end of the year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">\u201cWe routinely review our workforce through this lens and at times rebalance accordingly,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2025-11-04\/ibm-to-cut-thousands-of-roles-in-focus-on-software-growth\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:a company spokesperson told Bloomberg;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;a company spokesperson told Bloomberg&quot;}\" class=\"link \">a company spokesperson told Bloomberg<\/a>. \u201cIn the fourth quarter, we are executing an action that will impact a low single-digit percentage of our global workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\"><strong>Dow company histories:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">But <a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2025\/11\/05\/ibm-ceo-arvind-krishna-promise-hire-more-gen-z-college-graduates-but-thousands-laid-off-ai-restructuring\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Fortune;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Fortune&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Fortune<\/a> noted that not one week prior, Krishna had gone on CNN emphasizing he would be increasing hiring among college graduates, who have faced particularly strong headwinds recently in launching their careers, stating, \u201cPeople are talking about either <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thestreet.com\/employment\/layoffs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:layoffs;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;layoffs&quot;}\" class=\"link \">layoffs<\/a> or freezing hiring, but I actually want to say that we are the opposite. I expect we are probably going to hire more people out of college over the next 12 months than we have in the past few years, so you\u2019re going to see that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">\u201cOn the net mix, it\u2019s a plus for us,&#8221; he added, meaning that the company foresaw creating more roles than it would be reducing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">In 2023, IBM laid off approximately 1,900 workers, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/technology\/ibm-reports-highest-annual-revenue-growth-decade-2023-01-25\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Reuters;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Reuters&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Reuters<\/a>, as part of the spinoff of its Kyndryl business.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">However, on February 13, 2026, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2026-02-12\/ibm-plans-to-triple-entry-level-hiring-in-the-us-in-2026\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Bloomberg;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Bloomberg&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Bloomberg<\/a> reported that IBM plans to \u201ctriple entry-level hiring in the US in 2026.\u201d IBM did not disclose specifics, but the roles are expected to be in customer engagement and AI management.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/markets\/stocks\/articles\/owns-salesforce-2026-look-largest-144900068.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Related: Who owns Salesforce in 2026? A look at its largest shareholders &amp; leadership stake;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Related&quot;}\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Related: Who owns Salesforce in 2026? A look at its largest shareholders &amp; leadership stake<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">This story was originally published by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thestreet.com\/investing\/stocks\/ibm-employees\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:TheStreet;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;TheStreet&quot;}\" class=\"link \">TheStreet<\/a> on Mar 25, 2026, where it first appeared in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thestreet.com\/investing\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Investing;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Investing&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Investing<\/a> section. Add TheStreet as a <a href=\"https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=thestreet.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Preferred Source by clicking here.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Preferred Source by clicking here.&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In business since 1911, International Business Machines (IBM) became one of the world\u2019s leading technology companies through generations&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[20450,79,18,3495,19,62229,17,108634,38580],"class_list":["post-406238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-arvind-krishna","tag-business","tag-eire","tag-hybrid-cloud","tag-ie","tag-international-business-machines","tag-ireland","tag-leading-technology-companies","tag-skilled-workers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116299554115255568","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}