IBM says it's in the process of trimming more than 15,000 employees

NEW YORK (AP) _ Citing a slump in technology, IBM Corp. revealed that it's slashing more than 15,600 jobs, or 5 percent of its work force. <br><br>The technology giant never announced the layoff figures

Wednesday, August 14th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ Citing a slump in technology, IBM Corp. revealed that it's slashing more than 15,600 jobs, or 5 percent of its work force.

The technology giant never announced the layoff figures publicly, but disclosed them in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.

Employees losing their jobs were notified in several batches during the second quarter, which ended June 30.

IBM reported cutting 14,213 jobs, the majority of which fell on its Global Services unit, with some workers also laid off in its servers and software businesses. Another batch of layoffs dismissed 1,400 workers from the company's Microelectronics division, which manufactures semiconductors.

``The work force reductions are intended to drive productivity and efficiency throughout the company,'' said IBM spokeswoman Carol Makovich.

IBM blamed the cuts on ``the recent decline in corporate spending on technology services.''

By Sept. 30, when most of the laid-off workers are expected to have departed, IBM's work force will have been cut from 320,000 to around 305,000, Makovich said.

But the Armonk, N.Y.-based hardware and services vendor is also expected to undergo a surge in employees, as it adds some 30,000 members of the consulting arm of accountancy PricewaterhouseCooopers. IBM expects to complete the deal by the end of September, Makovich said.