Everyone knows that BlackBerry maker Research In Motion isn’t fairing too well in the smartphone and tablet space, and albeit hoping to turn their fortunes around with the release of the BlackBerry 10 operating system at some point in the future, it appears the time is approaching when RIM will ditch more employees.

According to the guys over at Phone Arena, inside sources at the Canadian firm have told AllThingsD that Research In Motion will lay off as many as 2000 employees soon. Back in the June of 2011, RIM ditches some 2000 workers roughly 10 percent of their global workforce, and it looks like RIM is about to do the same again.

Apparently one inside source has said that the BlackBerry maker has roughly 16,500 employees globally now, and that number will go down to 14,500 before the end of summer, and added 14,500 or less.

The Globe and Mail first reported the new of RIM shedding employees, and says that the planned lay-offs could be announced as soon as the 1st of June, a day before the end of Research In Motion’s first quarter.

Although unfortunate for those that get given the order of the boot from RIM, it appears it is a necessary move in an attempt to make the BlackBerry maker a sleeker company that can add new tech to devices more rapidly with Thorsten Heins, RIM’s new CEO having promised to streamline operations and improve execution with a goal of saving a billion dollars by the end of 2013.

Thus it would appear that the first part of saving that billion bucks is to ditch a percentage of the workforce, which to be honest is usually the case when a company has to make savings.