Amid reports of broader IBM la𒈔yoffs, it appears the iconic tech company is qu♍ietly moving thousands of roles to India.

Multiple outlets have reported on IBM’s layoffs, with describing them as “ongoing layoffs.” According to the outlet, IBM doesn’t just appear to be laying people off, but seems to be moving thousands of roles to India.

A look at shows 3,722 jobs available in India, as of the time of writing, up from 173 at the beginning 🦩of 2024, and 2,946 near the end of the year. The jobs run the full gamut, from customer support to full stack developers and data engineers.

According to The Register, sources within the company seem to indicate this is more than just beefing IBM’s presence in India.

“Everyone I asked internally for ‘transfer’ all said the same thing … ‘I can only hire in India,'” our source said.

A current IBMer was told to teach “everything I know” to recently hired employees in India, after which he was effectively laid off.

“In Q4 [2024], there were widespread layoffs rumored to be in the thousands, yet over a thousand job openings were created in India,” a another former IBMer told the outlet. “The favoritism was blatant.

“Many of those laid off had extensive cloud experience, only to be back-filled with individuals who had little to none. The most concerning shift was the complete outsourcing of QA [quality assurance] to India.”

“This resulted in near-daily escalations, as they attempted to replace highly experienced Quality Engineers – some with over a decade of expertise – with new hires trained in just six months. The consequences were predictable: a massive decline in quality and efficiency.”

If the reports are correct, and I﷽BM is moving roles en masse to Ind♏ia, it could well end up being a losing strategy, between the loss of experience and the ever-changing geopolitical climate.