While speaking to Bloomberg, Doug Shelton, an IBM spokesman in US candidly said that he would not confirm the number of redundancies.

“IBM is constantly rebalancing its workforce …That means reducing in some areas and hiring in others – based on shifts in technology and client demand. This allows IBM to remain competitive and relevant in an industry that is constantly changing” he said.

However, this week the company posted an annual revenue for 2011 of $109.9 bn, ten billions more than its revenue of 2010.

Lee Conrad, the national coordinator for the Alliance@IBM, a labor union at the company said “Morale is pretty much rock bottom. It’s like IBM no longer values the expertise of U.S. employees. Going to work every day for IBM is a challenge for a lot of people.”

Conrad says, according to reports from employees, the cuts are a result of jobs moving offshore.

“The work is being moved offshore to places like Bratislava, India, China, Philippines, all around the world … This is frankly, what IBM calls its re-balancing. They’re re-balancing from here in the United States and moving the work out of the country” said Conrad.

According to labor union estimates, IBM has about 97,000 employees still in U.S., while it employs almost 450,000 employees worldwide.

Conrad also told the media that layoffs are going to continue in all probability, “We believe IBM is going to get down to around the 40,000 employee mark. We’ve been seeing the trend all along that it’s been decreasing. And frankly, IBM employees and communities should say ‘enough is enough.’ ”

Conrad said that emails from employees indicated that in the latest round of layoffs, the Research Triangle Park facilities are not being spared.

But, the stocks of IBM is witnessing a rise showing clearly that in spite of all their sympathies for those who are losing jobs, those who have the money in the society, are backing those who have adopted layoffs or “re-balancing” as a perennial policy.