IBM laid off 800 workers

IBM has laid off more than 800 workers at locations across the U.S. in the past 24 hours, according to company sources and documents obtained by InformationWeek. Many of the cuts appear to target the company’s Global Technology Services outsourcing group.

Some 183 workers were laid off in the GTS application hosting unit, 179 were let go in GTS Delivery Distributed Server Management, and 128 employees lost their jobs in GTS Information Technology Services. In addition, 106 workers were laid off in IBM’s Systems & Technology Group, which manufactures servers and computer chips. The cuts also impacted smaller pockets of workers in various other units.

IBM’s U.S. headcount fell from about 134,000 employees in 2005 to roughly 105,000 in 2009, the last year it broke out its worldwide employee distribution by country. Since then, its U.S. headcount has fallen to 98,000, according to an estimate by IBM employee advocacy group Alliance@IBM, which is affiliated with Communications Workers of America, Local 1701.

According to documents, most IBM workers hit by Monday’s cuts will receive one week of severance pay for every six months worked at the company. They will also be eligible for retraining and job search assistance and other benefits.

Earlier, IBM offered to shift workers losing jobs to lower-wage countries especially in South Asia.