Cisco vs IBM: which job is safer?
Layoff risk for Engineering roles in India, scored this morning from confirmed layoffs, WARN filings, earnings, hiring and news signals.
Cisco
CSCO • Networking
- 7-day move
- -1
- 30-day move
- -21
- Safer than
- 30% of 89
- Layoffs (1 yr)
- 1 · 4,000 roles
Most recent confirmed cut: May 13, 2026, 4,000 roles.
Full Cisco reportIBM
IBM • Enterprise IT
- 7-day move
- no change
- 30-day move
- +2
- Safer than
- 30% of 89
- Layoffs (1 yr)
- None on record
Most recent confirmed cut: Aug 26, 2024, 1,000 roles.
Full IBM reportCisco vs IBM, signal by signal
| Signal | Cisco | IBM |
|---|---|---|
| Layoff risk score | 34 / 100 | 34 / 100 |
| Risk band | MODERATE | MODERATE |
| 7-day move | -1 | 0 |
| 30-day move | -21 | +2 |
| Confirmed layoffs (1 yr) | 1 | 0 |
| Disclosed roles cut (1 yr) | 4,000 | 0 |
| WARN notices (7 d) | 0 | 0 |
| Layoff headlines (7 d) | 0 | 0 |
| Employee sentiment | stable | stable |
| Employee-reported layoffs (30 d) | 0 | 0 |
Green marks the safer side of each row. Lower is better on every risk signal except open roles and revenue growth, where more is the healthier reading.
90-day risk trend, side by side
Should you switch from Cisco to IBM?
Cisco scores 34/100 (moderate risk) against IBM's 34/100 (moderate) for Engineering roles in India — a 0-point gap, which is inside the noise of a model built from public signals. Use the layoff record and the 30-day trend below to break the tie.
Direction matters as much as level. Over the last 30 days Cisco's risk score fell 21 points and IBM's rose 2 points. Neither is running away from the other, so the level reading is a real tie rather than a snapshot artefact — watch the trend alongside what employees are reporting.
On confirmed events, Cisco has 1 confirmed layoff totalling 4,000 disclosed roles on May 13. IBM has no confirmed layoff in the past year. Confirmed cuts are the heaviest input to the score and they decay on a half-life rather than expiring, so a large recent round keeps weighing on a company for months while an old one fades gradually.
In the last seven days: Cisco shed 1 point: its May 13 cut of 4,000 roles (5% of staff) decaying out of the window, 154 days on; and last quarter beat estimates by 4.4%.
Employee sentiment, blended from anonymous reports and the data signals, reads stable at Cisco and stable at IBM. Sentiment moves earlier than confirmed events but is far noisier, so treat it as a leading indicator rather than a score.
One caveat worth stating plainly: this compares employer-level risk, not your risk. Any engineering role on a revenue-critical team at the riskier company can be safer than a cost-centre role at the safer one. Read the score as the weather, not the forecast for your specific seat.