IBM to Lay Off Workers in High-Cost, Slow-Growth Markets

From the New York Times:

IBM announced yesterday that it would lay off 10,000 to 13,000 workers, mostly in Europe, as it struggles to keep up its profits at a time when global competition in the technology business spreads beyond selling computers to providing services.

The cutbacks come after I.B.M. reported disappointing quarterly earnings last month and the price of its shares dropped. But I.B.M. portrayed the move as mainly an evolution in its strategy of globalizing its operations by moving back-office work like accounting and procurement to low-cost locations and pruning operations in high-cost and slower-growth markets like France, Germany and Italy.

Unemployment in Germany reached 12.6% in February, the highest since the 1930's. In April, the French unemployment rate reached a 5-year high of 10.2%. Germany and France have a few things in common these days, aside from some interesting personal hygiene habits. Both countries are weighed down by excessive taxes, obtrusive government regulation, and a welfare-state mentality - all of which inhibit growth and stifle job-creation - and all of which are readily embraced by America's (and Alabama's) "progressives." Some progress.