Laid off from IBM.

What IBM layoffs have meant for employees

IBM calls them resource actions, and the wording earns its keep, because the thing it describes runs on a clock.

A company-wide percentage can hide what happens inside one group. Insiders and former employees told The Register that the Q4 2025 target ran to about 45 percent of the U.S. infrastructure group, with more than half of U.S. cloud expected to go, accounts IBM didn't confirm and which stay unverified. The same report counted 2,840 open IBM roles in India against 376 in the United States. Cuts in March 2025 had already reached Raleigh, New York City and State, Dallas, and California, insiders told The Register. Which group you sit in has mattered more than the company-wide figure.

IBM's own filings count what its announcements leave out. The 2025 annual report put employment at IBM and its wholly owned subsidiaries at 264,300 at year end, against 270,300 a year earlier, a decline of 6,000 across 2025. That figure nets hiring against every kind of departure, so it measures net change rather than layoffs, and it's the year-end count this comparison rests on. The same filing books $670 million of workforce rebalancing charges for 2025 and $696 million for 2024, a line that has sat in the company's selling and administrative expense for years.

The public filing record is thinner still. IBM has left almost nothing in the WARN record, which is what rolling cuts look like from outside the building. Checking your state's filings is still worth doing, and it's worth knowing in advance that a quiet result proves very little here.

The AI statements are worth reading exactly as they were made. In a May 2023 Bloomberg interview Arvind Krishna said he could easily see about 30 percent of IBM's non-customer-facing roles, roughly 7,800 jobs, replaced by AI and automation over five years. In May 2025 he told The Wall Street Journal that AI agents had taken over the work of about 200 people in human resources, and that IBM went on to hire more salespeople and software developers. IBM's own framing in February 2024 put its rebalancing down to productivity gains and to aligning the workforce with skills its clients wanted, naming AI and hybrid cloud. Only the February 2024 statement was about a particular round. That February statement also said IBM expected to end 2024 at roughly the level of employment it began with, and in late 2025 it said it expected U.S. employment to stay flat.

So if there's paperwork in front of you, it carries more weight than the reporting around it. ProPublica reported in 2018 that IBM had cut more than 20,000 American employees aged 40 and over across five years, about 60 percent of its estimated U.S. total, and that the company had denied older workers information the law says they need to judge age bias; IBM answered that it complies with the law. ProPublica also found that IBM had picked people for layoffs with techniques that tilted against older workers, even ones the company rated high performers. The ADEA's waiver rules count voluntary exit programs alongside involuntary ones, so a group invitation to volunteer for a package that asks you to waive age claims falls under them just as a layoff does. If you're at least 40 and offered an agreement under a group program, the full decision period the ADEA sets is yours to use, and an employment lawyer can go through it before the clock runs out.

A sourced history of IBM layoffs

• Q4 2025 resource action

  The action would affect a low single-digit percentage of IBM's global workforce, a spokesperson told CNBC. Notified staff had 30 days to land another IBM job or be let go with a few months' severance, The Register reported, and insiders put the target at about 45% of U.S. infrastructure.

• March 2025 U.S. cuts reported by insiders

  Insiders believed IBM was laying off thousands, including a quarter of Cloud Classic staff, The Register reported, with people let go in Raleigh, Dallas, California and New York City and State. One laid-off employee said those affected were offered a separation agreement.

• February 2024 voluntary redundancy round

  IBM asked staff willing to take voluntary redundancy to raise their hand as a global round began, The Register reported, and a spokesperson put the rebalancing at a very low single-digit percentage of the workforce.

• January 2023 cuts tied to the Kyndryl and healthcare units

  IBM announced about 3,900 cuts, 1.5% of its workforce, costing about $300 million. They related entirely to reorganizing the spun-off Kyndryl and a healthcare analytics business being sold, a spokesperson told CNN.

What to do if you're laid off from IBM

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. IBM's biggest hubs: New York, North Carolina, Texas, California. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what IBM's hub states run: New York, North Carolina, Texas, California, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.