IBM employed 264,300 people across IBM and its wholly owned subsidiaries at December 31, 2025, down from 270,300 a year earlier. The company reported $67.5 billion in 2025 revenue with a smaller workforce than in any of the three prior years. This post collects the verified workforce numbers IBM published in its 2025 Annual Report, its 2026 proxy statement, and its own responsible business data summary.
IBM Employee Statistics 2026
How Many People Does IBM Employ?
IBM splits its workforce disclosure into three separate lines, and they measure different things. The headline figure covers IBM and its wholly owned subsidiaries only.
The complementary line is not a headcount. IBM describes it as an approximation of equivalent full-time employees hired under temporary, part-time and limited-term arrangements.
| Workforce line (thousands) | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| IBM/wholly owned subsidiaries | 282.2 | 270.3 | 264.3 |
| Less-than-wholly owned subsidiaries | 8.7 | 8.9 | 8.7 |
| Complementary | 14.4 | 14.2 | 13.8 |
Source: IBM data summary, responsible business disclosures, years ended December 31, 2023 to December 31, 2025.
IBM operates in more than 175 countries, a figure the company rounds and reports as 175 in its 2025 data summary. The 2025 Annual Report repeats the 264.3 thousand figure in its Human Capital section.
What Does The Median IBM Employee Earn?
IBM identified its median employee on October 1, 2025 using annual base pay, converting all foreign currencies to U.S. dollars. The resulting pay ratio is one of the widest disclosed by a large U.S. technology employer.
| Measure | 2025 value |
|---|---|
| Median employee annual total compensation | $49,630 |
| Median employee base salary | $48,001 |
| Chairman, President and CEO annual total compensation | $37,989,685 |
| CEO-to-median-employee pay ratio | 765:1 |
Source: IBM 2026 Notice of Annual Meeting and Proxy Statement, pay ratio disclosure for the year ended December 31, 2025.
The median employee figure reflects IBM’s global payroll, not its U.S. payroll. IBM does not publish a country-level breakdown of headcount.
IBM Employee Statistics 2026: Women In The Workforce
IBM reports the global representation of women across four separate populations. Each percentage has its own denominator, so the four numbers do not add together.
Overall representation held flat at 37.2% between 2024 and 2025. Executive representation fell to 29.7%, the lowest of the three reported years.
| Population | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 37.4% | 37.2% | 37.2% |
| Management | 31.4% | 31.0% | 30.4% |
| Technical | 31.1% | 31.1% | 31.4% |
| Executive | 30.2% | 30.8% | 29.7% |
Source: IBM data summary, workforce demographics, years ended December 31, 2023 to December 31, 2025.
On pay, IBM states that women globally earn $1.00 for every $1.00 earned by men for similar work, and reports the same result for 2023, 2024 and 2025.
How Much Training Do IBM Employees Get?
Total learning hours worldwide reached 20.67 million in 2025, roughly flat against 20.63 million in 2024 and below the 23.10 million logged in 2023.
The average was 80 learning hours per regular or full-time employee in both 2024 and 2025, down from 85 hours in 2023.
| Metric | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total learning hours worldwide (millions) | 23.10 | 20.63 | 20.67 |
| Average hours per regular/full-time employee | 85 | 80 | 80 |
| Cumulative apprenticeship and new-collar investment | $100.3M | $222.0M | $283.9M |
Source: IBM data summary, career and development metrics, years ended December 31, 2023 to December 31, 2025.
Internal AI skilling ran alongside this. IBM reports that nearly 170,000 IBMers took part in its watsonx challenge during 2025. Much of that learning now happens away from a corporate campus, a shift tracked in wider return-to-office and remote work data and visible in how people build their home office spaces.
IBM Employee Engagement Survey Results
Participation in IBM’s annual engagement survey has risen for three straight years, reaching 206,000 respondents in 2025. The survey is internal and voluntary, so the results describe participants rather than the full workforce.
| Metric | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employees who responded to the engagement survey | 187,000 | 201,000 | 206,000 |
| Respondents who indicated they were engaged at work | 8 out of 10 | 8 out of 10 | 8 out of 10 |
Source: IBM data summary, talent metrics, years ended December 31, 2023 to December 31, 2025. Respondent counts rounded to the nearest thousand by IBM; “8 out of 10” denotes more than 80%.
The 2025 Annual Report adds that nearly nine out of ten participants said they felt empowered to be their authentic selves at work.
IBM Employee Statistics 2026: Workplace Safety Data
IBM recorded 55 recordable work-related injuries in 2025 against 511 million hours worked, a rate of 0.108 per million hours. That rate has risen in each of the past two years.
The company reported zero work-related fatalities in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
| Metric | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of recordable work-related injuries | 32 | 37 | 55 |
| Rate of recordable work-related injuries | 0.059 | 0.070 | 0.108 |
| Hours worked (millions) | 545 | 527 | 511 |
| Cases of recordable work-related ill health | 35 | 16 | 25 |
Source: IBM data summary, health and safety metrics, years ended December 31, 2023 to December 31, 2025. Rates use 1,000,000 hours worked.
IBM lists slips and falls, being struck by or striking an object, and overexertion as the main injury types for 2025. Musculoskeletal issues appear among the reported ill-health categories, and IBM says its programs include ergonomics training; the same principles show up in these science-backed workspace adjustments.
Prolonged seated work sits behind much of that category, which is part of why sit-stand desk adoption keeps climbing across large employers.
What IBM Spends On Workforce Rebalancing
IBM books severance and related restructuring under a line it calls workforce rebalancing charges. The charge fell slightly year over year in 2025.
| Period | Workforce rebalancing charges |
|---|---|
| Year ended December 31, 2024 | $696 million |
| Year ended December 31, 2025 | $670 million |
Source: IBM 2025 Annual Report, selling, general and administrative expense detail, years ended December 31, 2024 and December 31, 2025.
For the first six months of 2026, IBM reported workforce rebalancing charges of $0.4 billion, against $0.3 billion in the same period of 2025. Both figures are rounded to the nearest tenth of a billion in IBM’s adjusted EBITDA reconciliation of July 22, 2026.
IBM does not publish the number of employees affected by these charges. It also does not release a layoff headcount, which is why technical staff and outside analysts end up working backwards from the dollar figures.
FAQs
How many employees does IBM have in 2026?
IBM’s most recent disclosed figure is 264,300 employees at IBM and its wholly owned subsidiaries as of December 31, 2025. A further 8,700 worked at less-than-wholly owned subsidiaries. IBM has not published a 2026 headcount.
What is the average salary at IBM?
IBM does not publish an average. Its 2026 proxy statement reports median employee annual total compensation of $49,630 for 2025, with a median base salary of $48,001. The median employee was identified on October 1, 2025.
Are the IBM layoff numbers posted on Reddit accurate?
IBM does not disclose layoff headcounts, so Reddit figures cannot be checked against a company source. IBM does publish workforce rebalancing charges: $670 million in 2025 and $696 million in 2024.
What percentage of IBM employees are women?
Women made up 37.2% of IBM’s global workforce in 2025, unchanged from 2024. Representation was 31.4% in technical roles, 30.4% in management and 29.7% at executive level.
Do Reddit claims about IBM’s shrinking workforce hold up?
The direction does. IBM’s disclosed headcount fell from 282,200 at the end of 2023 to 270,300 in 2024 and 264,300 in 2025. Revenue over the same period rose to $67.5 billion in 2025.
Sources
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/51143/000005114326000027/ibmars2025.pdf
https://www.ibm.com/responsibility/data-and-policies
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/51143/000005114326000025/ibm2026courtesypdf.pdf
https://newsroom.ibm.com/2026-07-22-IBM-RELEASES-SECOND-QUARTER-RESULTS
