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Comment by jstx1 | Hacker News Reader

> IBM’s current headcount is 260,000, Kavanaugh said. That is about 22,000 lower than the figure disclosed for December 2021.

4000 seems like a tiny number in context of total headcount, and when you take into account that they've somehow lost more than 5 times as many in the past year.

> The cuts will focus on workers remaining after spinoffs of the Kyndryl and Watson Health units

So the already dead parts of the company? It's almost like they're doing layoffs for the sake of appearances; they aren't really changing anything.

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> It's almost like they're doing layoffs for the sake of appearances

It's almost like you're noticing this because the media is playing up layoff reports in tech.

To quote... you - "4000 seems like a tiny number in context of total headcount, and when you take into account that they've somehow lost more than 5 times as many in the past year."

They've reduced staff by 5 times this amount over the last 24 months, but this is the reduction that you think is for the sake of appearances... I wonder if that's because this is the one getting media attention...?

Another way to think about this is that IBM may be the ones playing up this comparatively-tiny reduction in headcount, because they expect to be rewarded for it (share price up). They would have seen the opposite effect from publicizing the cuts of '22, so they did the cuts but didnt talk about it.

This is a weird take. Are you arguing that we aren't seeing an abnormally high number of layoffs in tech? That this is just "media sensationalism"?

Nearly all the layoff reports I've come across I hear about before they're in the mainstream media. Additionally I predicted months ago that we'd be seeing massive layoffs in tech, before the media was talking about it at all.

These layoffs are real, are atypical for what we've seen the past decade, and are impacting a large number of real devs.

Honestly I haven't even seen the media talking about it until the last few weeks. When I talked about impending tech layoffs back in Oct-Nov nobody outside of the tech community had any idea that there were any issues facing tech.

I hardly see how layoffs are being "played up" rather than just being reported.

If you look at most of the headcounts from companies doing layoffs - you'll see that they're still sitting around the 2021 numbers after accounting for the cuts.

So basically - we had a large glut of hiring during covid in tech as demand was high for those products and services (being in lockdown certainly helped) and now we're seeing a relatively minor adjustment back down.

Given the increased interest rates and the slump in demand - I think we're actually still well on the light side of the possible wave of layoffs.

I think the reporting is still in line with the gloom and doom headlines that attract attention. Basically - they're reporting much more on the tech layoffs because it garners views.

The increase in tech hiring was just as hard - and while it did get media attention, it was not nearly as intense and recurrent.

10% churn is not abnormal for a big, bureaucratic business.

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