Estimates That IBM to Lay Off Close to 10,000 Workers in 2026 (Not Counting People Pushed Out)
43 minutes ago: (some of these are involuntary but the unlawful NDAs illiberally limit what they can say in public)
There's still chatter about Confluent mass layoffs [1, 2, 3]. Under an hour ago someone suggested those affected should apply at Cloudera:
Responding to false claims of no RAs at IBM (IBM's own CFO already admitted RAs in 2026), someone wrote 50 minutes ago: "How do you think IBM shrank 6k worth of head count in 2025. OF course there were layoffs. Most likely approx 7k worth given that IBM hired in new hires via purchasing SW companies during the 2025 calendar year, and yet shrank as a company. This is quasi confirmed via IBM taking a 700 million dollar restructuring charge during the 2025 operating year (eg 1billion = 10k heads). Net net yes there were layoffs in 2025 (I’m speculating 7k worth) and there will be another 7k worth in 2026, as IBM pre-announced restructuring charges in 2026 would mirror 2025 charges."
If IBM/Confluent has just canned 800 workers or a quarter of its staff (as rumours suggest), will those count as IBM "RAs" or Confluent layoffs?
Regardless, the media won't pay much attention. We've noticed that since IBM began paying The [cash-strapped] Register MS (their editor confronted me over this, but did not deny it happened!) Thomas has barely written a single word about IBM layoffs.
We welcome IBM/Confluent whistleblowers. The record needs to be set straight. █