IBMs Mass Layoffs: U.S. Employees Offered to Relocate to India Amid Workforce Shift

According to information from The Register, IBM is continuing its mass layoffs of local employees within its American division. Notably, instead of the laid-off American workers, the company is actively hiring Indians, but specifically those residing not in the US but in India.

The layoffs are ongoing as IBM gradually moves away from certain skill sets or relocates related functions outside the United States, as indicated by media sources. Displaced employees wryly noted that it seems IBM might even be planning to shift its headquarters from the US to India, given the influx of new hires in locations outside the US, and may even rebrand itself as Indian Business Machines.

At the beginning of January 2024, IBM had only 173 job openings in India compared to 192 in the US. By November 2024, this had ballooned to 2,946 vacancies in India (376 in the US). In March 2025, the number of openings at IBM in India surged to 3,866, with just 333 in the US.

A former employee from the US shared that before being laid off, he was instructed to train the recently hired employees in India «on everything he knew.» Additionally, after receiving a layoff notice, employees typically have a set timeframe to apply for open positions within the company.

However, it turned out that IBM’s open positions in the US were merely on paper. «Everyone I reached out to within the company about transferring said they could only hire in India,» one US employee told the media. When he inquired about what to do next, the HR department informed him that he needed to relocate to India.

Previously, IBM had publicly stated its intention to reduce its workforce. According to The Register, in 2024, the company laid off approximately 9,000 workers, including staff from its marketing and communications department.

In August 2024, IBM decided to cease research and development operations in China, resulting in the layoff of over a thousand employees. The company stated that «these changes would not affect its ability to support its Chinese clients.»

In March 2025, reports surfaced that IBM was laying off thousands of workers at its offices across the US. The Cloud Classic division was particularly hard hit, losing 25% of its workforce. A source from the publication noted that the exact number of layoffs is being kept confidential by IBM’s management.