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On the eve of a summit last month between technology executives and then President-elect Donald Trump, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty publicly pledged to hire about 25,000 U.S. workers and spend $1 billion on training over the next four years.
She didn't mention that International Business Machines Corp. was also firing workers and sending many of the jobs overseas.
In late November, IBM completed at least its third round of firings in 2016, according to former and current employees. They don't know how many people have lost their jobs but say it's probably in the thousands, with many of the positions shipped to Asia and Eastern Europe. During the presidential campaign, Trump routinely criticized offshoring, although he didn't specifically mention IBM. The firings--known internally as "resource actions"--have continued into the new year. This month, IBM started notifying more U.S. workers that they would be let go, according to a current employee, who says colleagues in the services business are bracing for further rounds.
Many industries and companies have been sending jobs overseas to take advantage of lower wages and to be closer...