Netease technology news on May 22, according to foreign media reports, IBM cut an unknown number of jobs across the United States Thursday local time, involving employees in at least five states. The company declined to comment on the total number of layoffs, but said it would provide health insurance benefits to all U.S. employees affected by the layoffs by June 2021.

A North Carolina employee said the number of employees affected could be thousands. The employee was laid off along with his team of 12. "It's a very broad layoff, and past performance, age and seniority don't seem to matter," he said

The cuts also affected employees in Pennsylvania, California, Missouri and New York, where IBM is based, people familiar with the situation said.

Another unemployed employee said the layoffs were mainly concentrated in IBM's North American employees. On Thursday, half of his 70 person department was laid off and told it needed to leave the company by June 22.

At present, the whole American technology industry has encountered large-scale layoffs. Airbnb and Uber cut about a quarter of their staff. Earlier Thursday, Hewlett Packard (HPE) said it would cut jobs to save money, while Dell suspended several employee benefits.

In a January earnings conference call, IBM discussed "positive structural actions" to reduce costs to improve the competitiveness of its global technical services consulting division. The division accounts for about a third of IBM's revenue.

Dozens of newly unemployed IBM employees lament the current situation and are worried about finding a new job during the downturn. Some of them say they have worked for IBM for more than 20 years. "In the current situation, it is difficult to find new opportunities," one wrote. (Chenchen)

Source: Netease Technology Report