IBM cranks up workforce layoffs by thousands - report

Under the radar job cuts could hit 14,000 workers

IBM has quietly begun a new round of layoffs that could hit up to 14,000 employees, the Wall Street Journal and the IBM employee Facebook page reported.

The workforce reduction – which IBM calls a "resource action" – follows an earlier round of terminations in March that involved 5,000 employees. The latest volley is hitting US workers at IBM's North Carolina Research Triangle Park facilities and locations in New York City, Poughkeepsie, NY and Boulder, Colorado, according to the WSJ and WRAL TechWire.

Job cuts also are under way in Australia, according to multiple messages posted on Facebook.

IBM reportedly confirmed the layoffs and claimed it has listed 25,000 open jobs as part of an initiative to rebalance its workforce towards expertise in the so-called strategic imperatives of analytics/big data, the cloud, mobile and security.

However, employees with access to an internal jobs search list told the WSJ that the actual number of open slots is closer to 8,000. IBM employees also told W RAL TechWire that fewer than 2,000 positions in the US are on the list.

Last week, IBM said it will close a New York campus and relocate 2,000 workers to a nearby campus in North Castle, NY next year.

IBM employs 378,000 people worldwide.