IBM is "Increasing Its Temporary and Part-time Headcount" While Net Headcount Falls (Despite Buying Many Companies and Their Workforce)
Yesterday: IBM's "Legacy Employees" (Experienced Workers, IBM Management Dubs Them 'Dinobabies')
Having glanced at about a dozen new comments regarding IBM layoffs (from the past half a day), a pattern emerges as workers express disbelief and distrust. They know IBM lies about the layoffs (or alleged lack thereof) and in recent months we saw mass layoffs at several companies that IBM acquired only months ago. We heard about cuts at Red Hat, HashiCorp has just had layoffs, and earlier this month IBM laid off over 800 at Confluent.
6 hours ago in a Wall Street publication (booster of the "market") Jeremy Salvucci and Laura Rodini published this piece:
It says: "According to IBM’s most recent annual report, the company’s 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)."
It then does a comparison: "In 2024, 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). 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."
But IBM bought quite a few companies and then laid off many people in those companies. Moreover, the CFO said we're to expect similar cuts this year.
To understand the full story one must look at IBM's debt and other metrics. Also, median salary must have gone down as IBM replaces "expensive" workers with "juniors". Headcount is a rather superficial yardstick. █