RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – IBM is closing a Client Innovation Center in Dubuque, Iowa, where 344 people work. In 2011 the center employed some 1,300 people but jobs have declined steadliy since hitting that peak number.
The news was disclosed by Greater Dubuque Development Corp. CEO Rick Dickinson who said he received a phone call from IBM on Wednesday in which he was told about the closing.
Jobs will be consolidated at another IBM center in Columbia, Missouri, according to The Associated Press.
“With COVID-19, everybody in the company has already been working from home since sometime in March,” he said, according to The AP. “IBM is looking at post-COVID operations, and it’s just more efficient to consolidate Dubuque into Columbia.”
The news comes after IBM laid off an unknown number of workers in May.
The Dubuque center opened in 2009.
IBM operates one of its largest corporate campuses in RTP and employs several thousand people across North Carolina.
