IBM layoff includes about 200 in Dubuque

DUBUQUE - IBM confirmed Wednesday it is laying off workers at its Dubuque office as part of a worldwide layoff of 'a few thousand” workers.

President and CEO of the Greater Dubuque Development Corporation, Rick Dickinson, said the number of layoffs in Dubuque is approximately 200.

'At a time when IBM is aggressively transforming, the company continues to rebalance its workforce to meet the changing requirements of its clients and to lead in new, high value segments of the IT industry, including cloud, analytics, mobile, security, social and cognitive computing,” the company said in a statement.

Rumors of a mass layoff at IBM have been circulating for weeks since IBM announced a $600 million workforce rebalancing as part of its fourth quarter filing for 2014.

Dickinson said the job cuts were precipitated by a slump in company's revenue.

'They've had eleven consecutive quarters of declining revenues, which doesn't speak well of any corporation,” he said. 'Even if you're the third most recognized brand in the world.”

Dickinson said the layoffs won't have a major impact on the local economy. He said the 200 positions make up three-tenths of a percent of the total workforce in Dubuque County.

'The good news for these folks being terminated is that we have jobs here in Dubuque for them,” Dickinson said.

Dubuque Mayor Roy Buol estimated there were more than 700 local jobs posted to AccessDubuque.com. He said many of them were in IT fields.

'I know that there are a lot of businesses that are looking for that type of skill set,” Buol said. 'We're hopeful that we'll be able to retain a lot of those employees that are going to be laid off.”

Besides a fairly bountiful job market, Dickinson confirmed the 200 will be getting severance packages, which include a week's pay for every six months worked and a period of health insurance.

Dickinson was unsure when the layoffs would take effect. He estimated it would be in the next 60 days.

IBM opened a global delivery center in Dubuque in 2009, promising 1,300 jobs. IBM also laid off an unknown number of workers last year as part of another worldwide restructuring move.