IBM global number of employees 2000-2021

In 2021, American tech company IBM employed around 282 thousand people worldwide. IBM has been facing declining revenues and consequently is trying to restructure its business model, which could partly explain the decreasing number of current employees.

IBM’s history

IBM, the common name of International Business Machines Corporation, is one of the largest technology and consulting companies in the world. Founded in 1911, the company is headquartered in Armonk, New York. The company's business segments include the "Global Technology Services" segment, where IBM provides comprehensive IT infrastructure and platform services, as well as the "Global Business Services" segment which provides clients with consulting, business process, and application management services, specializing in AI workflows and applications for hybrid cloud environments.

IBM's innovations

IBM is responsible for some of the most groundbreaking inventions in the technology industry: the automated teller machine (ATM), the hard disk drive (HDD), the Universal Product Code (UPC), and dynamic random-access memory (DRAM). The company continues to innovate, ranking first among companies with the most U.S. patents granted and a leading owner of machine learning and AI patents. Alongside this, IBM has committed itself to environmental leadership, addressing climate change, energy efficiency, product design, and the use of materials.