IBM, which opened its Baton Rouge services center in downtown a little over a year ago, won’t say if a workforce restructuring initiative that has resulted in layoffs at U.S. facilities is impacting its local workforce.
The Wall Street Journal reports IBM quietly laid off more employees last week, continuing a wage of job cuts announced by the company in April. Though IBM wouldn’t confirm any figures, Sanford Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi estimates the cuts could reach as high as 14,000 jobs.
While IBM spokesman Doug Shelton confirms the restructuring plan to Daily Report via an email, he wouldn’t provide answers to whether job cuts were planned in Baton Rouge or which positions could be impacted.
“If we meet our hiring targets, we expect our employee numbers to be roughly the same at year-end as they were in 2015,” Shelton writes of the company’s worldwide headcount, which was 377,757 at the end of 2015. “We are ahead of schedule in creating local jobs in your region.”
He notes the company has more than 25,000 open positions worldwide, many in key skill areas.
IBM’s local services center on Lafayette Street provides software maintenance and development for its U.S. clients. When plans for the Baton Rouge facility were announced in 2013, the company and state economic development officials said it would create at least 800 local jobs.
“IBM consistently has affirmed its commitment with the state of Louisiana to create 800 jobs at its Client Innovation Center in Baton Rouge and 400 jobs at its Client Innovation Center in Monroe,” reads a statement issued today from Louisiana Economic Development.
Baton Rouge Area Chamber officials deferred questions about whether the company is ahead of or behind schedule in creating the promised jobs to IBM’s local talent manager, Elizabeth O’Quinn, who could not be reached before this afternoon’s deadline.
According to national reports, job cuts at IBM are coming after revenues have declined for four years in a row and as the rise of cloud computing is putting pressure on the company.
—Alexandria Burris
