IBM has eliminated approximately 1,500 jobs in North American in its technology services unit, a spokesman has confirmed.
The cuts mark the second this month in the services arm of the company. The first set, totaling 1,450, were to IBM Global Services mostly in North America, said Ed Barbini, an IBM spokesman.
Big Blue's CTO indicated during the company's first-quarter earnings call that IBM needed to address cost issues in North America. For the first quarter, IBM reported profit at the technology unit fell 19 percent to $681 million.
IBM ended last year with approximately 335,000 employees and the company has hired 19,000 since then. Barbini said the company did not break down those new hires along geographic lines. The company has also cut about 3,000 jobs during the current quarter, according to reports.
Job cuts are frequently a matter of course in service businesses as business and customer requirements change, Barbini said.
Historically as much as 20 percent of those hit by job cuts at IBM have been able to find other jobs within the company, according to Barbini.
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