"The computer industry slump, sagging profits and concerns about future growth are forcing a painful internal examination of IBM?Ûªs cherished ?Û÷?Û÷full-employment?Ûª' no-layoffs policy, and raises serious questions about whether the world?Ûªs biggest computer company is overstaffed, analysts said.</br></br>With more than 405,000 employes?ÛÓ242,000 of them in the United States?ÛÓInternational Business Machines is one of the world?Ûªs largest employers. It is one of a handful of technology companies with a tradition of avoiding layoffs.</br></br>While other multibillion-dollar corporations with paternalistic practices, such as Eastman Kodak Co., Xerox Corp. and E. I. DuPont de Nemours, have dramatically cut their blue-collar and middle-management ranks in recent times, IBM ""remains fully committed?Û? to full employment, said IBM Chairman John F. Akers.</br></br>But at an analysts meeting in San Jose, Calif., last week, Akers aknowledged there would be a drop in the U.S. work force by the end of this year?ÛÓthe first such year-to-year decline at the company in 11 years. An IBM spokeswoman said, ""IBM?Ûªs objective is to reduce IBM?Ûªs U.S. employment.?Û? ?Û÷They?Ûªre overmanned, which means they?Ûªll continue to be in an attrition mode,?Û? said J. Quinn Mills, a Harvard Business School professor and occasional consultant to IBM. ""The most pessimistic case is that this computer recession will deepen and that they will not be able to ?Û÷attrit?Ûª people fast enough.?Û?</br></br>IBM has a hiring freeze in force?ÛÓnew hires have dropped from a record 18,500 in 1984 to a projected 2,500 to 3,000, ?ÛÏmainly technical?Û? hires for 1986?ÛÓand is counting on attrition to trim IBM?Ûªs U.S. employes."