IBM to Lose 13,000 Jobs 516
KingDaveRa writes "The BBC is reporting that IBM is losing 13,000 jobs. This comes after disappointing financial results. Most jobs will be going in europe."
Numeric stability is probably not all that important when you're guessing.
erm (Score:5, Informative)
Re:My uncle (Score:3, Informative)
My mum works at IBM and the IBM/Lenovo split is a very short time off now. This is the main transition point for the company. Your uncle losing his job most likely is that Lenovo is unwilling to hire him, not IBM 'firing' him.
IBM has been making hairline profits on their PCD section for years and years, under very heavy competition. They're changing their whole buisness setup. Losses are to be expected...
Re:Losing your job is hard (Score:2, Informative)
How times have changed (Score:3, Informative)
How times have changed. I'm sorry to hear about how this will impact the lives of all those people affected, directly and indirectly.
Re: My uncle (Score:5, Informative)
Mrs T. was keen to cut away the dead wood (the declining shipbuilding industries) in order to give tax breaks to the South East. Not a bad thing by itself, but the money saved would have been better invested in retraining and education for the communities in the North of England. At the time of these cutbacks, the local people were crying out for financial assistance in regenerating their cities, but Mrs T. wouldn't help - She was only interested in tax-breaks for the City. As a result the Militant faction of Labour gained power [bbc.co.uk]. This led to Mrs T. imposing rate-capping [nwlg.org] on the various Labour city councils. Both sides (Militant Labour and the Conservatives) realized that this was going to be the class war of the decade and were determined to fight to the bitter end.
The collateral damage of this war, was that the middle classes left the inner cities a generation ago, moved down South and have never returned. It was only a decade later with financial aid from the EEC that the North of England is slowly regenerating. But the only new business that are setting up are service jobs: supermarkets, pubs, nightclubs and maybe the odd software company,.which usually gets bought out.
Instead, the communities in the North of England have continued emigration, with everyone who could, having moved down to the South of England, which itself is now becoming overcrowded and overpriced (So overcrowded, that they even building flats and houses on the communal piece of grass in the squares (three streets facing each other).
The current Labour government is trying to fix this "North-South divide" by dispersing asylum seekers and moving government jobs away from the South of England, but everyone wants to stay where the wealth is.
Re:My uncle (Score:2, Informative)
That's called socialism [wikipedia.org]. This is a democracy. Be sure and understand that distinction as it leads to a government-controlled life.
Re:Hmm not a suprise (Score:2, Informative)
(1) the sale of PCD included selling the employees. PCD lay-offs will appear as Lenovo actions.
(2) PCs are manufactured outside Europe (Mexico, China, etc.).
The loss of however many jobs is still unfortunate.
Re:My uncle (Score:2, Informative)
Transforming for Growth (Score:1, Informative)
IBM is not "losing" jobs; IBM is firing people.
No no no, we had an email about it from the EMEA general manager this morning. Apparently we are "Transforming for Growth"!