“IBM’s work in a competitive market requires flexibility to continuously add high-quality skills to our workforce,” said spokesman Ed Barbini. “We recognize the unique and difficult situation that this decision may lead to for some of our employees. Therefore, IBM will provide subsidized medical coverage to all affected employees in the US through June 2021.”
It is not immediately clear how much the corona pandemic is responsible for the layoffs. IBM has been experiencing sales declines for several years. Yet other IT companies also report that they are bracing themselves for the fall-out of the corona pandemic. For example, HPE has set up a savings plan to keep a billion dollars in cash by 2022. This will include cutting the wages of the top executives, but there will also be naked layoffs. On the other hand, various fringe benefits have been lost at Dell. Internet platforms such as Uber and Airbnb make it all hands on deck. Both companies want to send out about a quarter of their workforce.
