General Motors Is ‘Transforming’ Its IT Department By Laying Off Over 500 People

Things aren’t going so great for certain General Motors employees today. A batch of workers in the company’s Information Technology (IT) department was laid off on Monday as part of a restructuring of the division.

General Motors didn’t disclose how many jobs were affected, though Bloomberg claims the redundancies have targeted 500 to 600 employees, citing unnamed sources familiar with the layoffs. This string of white-collar job cuts is the second such incident in eight months, following the elimination of over 200 salaried staff back in October.

In a statement to The Autopian, General Motors says the reductions are a part of an effort to “transform” the company’s IT division to better prepare it for the coming future. Here’s the full statement I was sent via email:

“GM is transforming its Information Technology organization to better position the company for the future. As part of that work, we have made the difficult decision to eliminate certain roles globally. We are grateful for the contributions of the employees affected and are committed to supporting them through this transition.” 

GM didn’t say which regions would be most affected, but confirmed to me that employees made redundant today would receive severance with the length and amount determined by how long each individual has been at the company, which is a pretty standard business practice.

From the sounds of it, people on Reddit who claim to be employees affected by the layoffs didn’t see it coming. Over a dozen users shared their experience of being laid off or hearing of someone (or a group of people) being laid off. Here are just a few of the comments:

The layoffs come at an interesting time for General Motors. The company has recently been pushing to evolve its company into a tech-first powerhouse, adding more software and computing to its cars to rival tech-forward rivals such as Tesla and Rivian. So it’s interesting to hear so many jobs eliminated in the most tech-heavy section of the company.

It’s possible GM took a look at its current roster and determined it wanted to spend the money elsewhere. While these jobs likely won’t be coming back, GM is currently hiring 83 other positions globally for various IT departments, per its careers site. So it’s not like they’re just cutting a bunch of people and not replacing at least a few of them.

Though GM has remained profitable in 2025, it took a massive $8.7 billion in total write-downs tied to its EV business, which hasn’t panned out due to a lack of federal incentives and slowing demand. In addition to the 200-plus employees laid off in October, the company furloughed 5,500 factory workers at the same time to reassess demand for electric vehicles.

While the company has stayed afloat thanks to the public’s unending desire for giant trucks and SUVs (plus a huge tariff refund), the ongoing war in Iran isn’t doing anything to help inflation or gas prices. So it’s just looking for ways to streamline any way it can. GM raised its profit outlook by half a billion to match the tariff refund, but still expects the rising costs of raw materials to put a huge damper on its bottom line. From Reuters:

The ​Detroit automaker raised its 2026 profit outlook by $500 million, matching the amount it expects to recover from refunds tied to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck ​down some of the Trump administration’s tariffs. It now expects full-year core profit of $13.5 billion to $15.5 billion.

It still sees U.S. tariffs cutting $2.5 billion to $3.5 billion from profits this year, revised down from an earlier estimate of $3 billion to $4 billion because of the expected refund.

GM’s higher profit outlook comes despite rising costs. It now expects inflation in raw materials, computer chips and logistics to ​cut earnings by $1.5 billion to $2 billion this year, about $500 million more than it estimated late last year.

GM employs nearly 100,000 people globally, so 500 or so people isn’t exactly a huge amount as a percentage of total employees. But it still sucks, and reading the comments for people who got laid off on Reddit is a reminder that these are real people and not numbers.

Top graphic image: GM