Fears for 1,000 British IBM jobs

ABOUT 1,000 jobs are under threat after American computing giant IBM said it aims to trim a 'small percentage' of its 25,000 British workforce. IBM said it had offered voluntary severance packages to employees across its British divisions but it had no immediate plans to make any compulsory redundancies.

The world's largest computer maker has offices across the South-East and in most provincial cities. The move follows its warning last month that slack demand will cause a likely $1bn (£682m) shortfall in expected sales in the first three months of this year.