According to TheRegister.com, IBM this week began notifying several thousand employees they’ll be laid off through Resource Action notifications that give staff 30 days to find new positions internally. The cuts are expected to hit about 45 percent of IBM’s US infrastructure group and more than 50 percent of the US Cloud group under SVP Ric Lewis. IBM reported Q3 2025 profits of $1.7 billion on $16.3 billion revenue, with infrastructure revenue up 17 percent to $3.6 billion. The company told Bloomberg this affects a “low single-digit percentage” of its global workforce, which would mean 2,700 to 5,400 jobs from its 270,300 employees worldwide. Meanwhile, IBM currently lists only 376 job openings in the US compared to 2,840 in India.
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The profitability squeeze
Here’s the thing that doesn’t quite add up. IBM’s infrastructure business actually grew revenue by 17 percent last quarter with solid 57.2 percent gross margins. So why the massive cuts? Sources point to Ric Lewis’s promise of profitability in infrastructure this year. Basically, they’re chasing margins rather than growth. But cutting half your US infrastructure team seems like an extreme way to achieve profitability. It makes you wonder if there’s something deeper going on that the revenue numbers aren’t showing.
The offshoring reality
Look at those job opening numbers again. 2,840 positions in India versus 376 in the US. That’s nearly 8-to-1. Employees have been complaining about offshoring for years, but this ratio is staggering. One current employee cited “exhaustion from the specter of layoffs and RAs” – and you can see why. When your company has thousands of openings overseas while cutting thousands domestically, the message is pretty clear. IBM’s US workforce has been shrinking for decades, from 160,000 in 2002 to around 50,000 today according to benefit plan data.
What this means for workers
The Resource Action process sounds brutal. You get 30 days to find another internal position knowing most people won’t succeed. Then you’re out with “a few months” of severance. Employees are already sharing their experiences on forums like The Layoff and Reddit. And IBM’s not even confirming the scale publicly – they’re letting employees find out through anonymous leaks and speculation. That creates exactly the kind of toxic environment that drives away the talent you actually want to keep.
The bigger tech trend
IBM isn’t alone here. Amazon just announced 14,000 job cuts, Oracle is doing similar restructuring. But IBM’s situation feels different because they’re simultaneously posting growth numbers while cutting deeply. It raises questions about whether this is really about current performance or preparing for something else. With Ric Lewis pushing infrastructure profitability and the company’s current job openings heavily weighted toward India, this looks like a fundamental restructuring rather than temporary belt-tightening. The question is whether cutting your US cloud expertise while the business is growing revenue is a smart long-term play.
