NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - IBM on Tuesday said the total number of employees who lost their jobs as a result of its cost cutting efforts in the second quarter exceeded 15,600, more than twice what some company watchers had estimated.

The tech titan disclosed that number in its comprehensive quarterly financial statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

IBM, the world's largest supplier of computer hardware and information technology services, said the bulk of the job cuts were in its Global Services division, where most of 14,213 jobs. Another 1,400 cuts will come from its Microelectronics business, IBM said.

About 57 percent of those laid off had left the company as of June 30. The remaining 43 percent will be off the payroll by Sept. 30, IBM said in the filing.

IBM CEO Samuel Palmisano and Chief Financial Officer John Joyce also signed a sworn statement attesting to the accuracy of the company's quarterly financial statement, called a 10-Q.

Following a series of corporate accounting scandals, the SEC established a rule requiring the senior executives of companies that had 2001 revenue of at least $1.2 billion to take an oath certifying that their financial statements are correct.

The company's filing puts the magnitude of its job cuts into a much clearer perspective than it had been.

IBM (IBM: Research, Estimates) has a reputation for making "stealth layoffs," referring to small job cuts across a range of departments, which keeps it out of the public eye. During this latest round of layoffs, the company did not publicly announce the cuts, but it did acknowledge that job cuts were being made if reporters called and asked.

However, IBM refused to provide specific numbers, confirming only that job cuts were made and in which divisions.

The Alliance@IBM, a labor union representing about 4,000 IBM employees, has been chronicling the job cuts and had estimated the total number at about 7,000.

But union representatives pointed out that because IBM's Global Services unit is somewhat fragmented, with many employees working from their homes and others scattered in small offices across the globe, determining the actual number of cuts there would be difficult.

At last count, IBM employed more than 319,000 people worldwide, roughly 160,000 of whom were based in the U.S. Some industry observers have suggested that the sheer size of the company and the scope of its operations make it nearly impossible for IBM to provide a specific number of expected layoffs.

Others pointed out that IBM's top management typically does not mandate a specific number of job cuts, but instead delegates such decisions to the company's various divisional managers.

Using that approach, IBM's top brass wouldn't know what the actual number is until each of its divisions reports back.

Initially, IBM had estimated that it would record a total of between $2 billion and $2.5 billion in charges related to the job cuts and other restructuring moves. But when it reported its second-quarter results, the company said that total may reach as high as $3 billion.