IBM Closing Eastern Iowa Location, Moving Most Jobs to Missouri

International Business Machines' (IBM) stay in Dubuque, Iowa ended up being a short one. The company, which began operations in the Key City in 2009 is moving nearly all remaining jobs in Dubuque to Columbia, Missouri.

IBM employed 1300 people in Dubuque nine years ago, according to the Telegraph Herald. The number of people working at the company in Dubuque has steadily declined since then. By 2014, approximately 1,000 people were employed at IBM in Dubuque. Two years later, the number had been nearly halved, to 540. The Telegraph Herald says the Greater Dubuque Development Corporation reports the company currently employs 344.

KCRG says employees found out about the upcoming change this morning and that it will happen in November. The good news is most of IBM's workers in Dubuque will have the opportunity to work in Columbia, Missouri, while some will continue to work in offices of clients or remotely in Dubuque itself. The exact numbers are not known.

Dubuque Initiatives helped bring IBM to Dubuque more than a decade ago and previously owned the Roshek Building, that IBM has its offices in. The building was sold to Cottingham & Butler and Heartland Financial USA in November of 2020. The two companies have said they are planning to use larger portions of the building. It's not known if that had any impact on today's announcement.