Fox 44 Says: IBM Announces 5,000 U.S. Layoffs

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IBM Announces 5,000 U.S. Layoffs
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - IBM Corp. plans to lay off about 5,000 U.S. employees in a new round of job cuts, The Associated Press has learned.

An IBM manager knowledgeable about the plans says the cuts will come from the services division and workers will be informed Thursday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the plan publicly.

The layoffs were reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal. This represents about 4 percent of IBM's U.S.-based work force, which totaled 115,000 at the end of 2008.

IBM has about 400,000 employees worldwide and is aggressively shifting labor to lower-cost regions like India.

In January, IBM cut thousands of U.S. jobs in sales, software and hardware. IBM didn't give the precise number, saying it fell below an amount that would require disclosure.