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The latest move from Verizon follows the announcement of 15,000 job cuts last year.

By: Harry Baldock, Total Telecom

According to a report from Business Insider, US mobile network operator Verizon is preparing to cut ‘several hundred’ jobs.

The exact number of jobs affected has not been announced, with Verizon saying only that the move will affect “less than 1%” of its total headcount.

The roles will be cut across the organization, with the company’s headquarters in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, being the most affected area.

Verizon has been steadily reducing headcount for several years, with the most significant cuts taking place late last year with the company announcing plans to cut around 15,000 roles. Once implemented, these cuts will reduce the company’ total headcount to around 85,000. As such, today’s additional cuts could represent a further 850 jobs lost.

Despite these cuts, Verizon notes that it has job openings in other areas of the business.

“We’re continuing to add head count to grow parts of the business that are growing while making targeted job reductions to portions of the business where this is needed,” a Verizon spokesperson said in a statement.

Pressure has been mounting on Verizon in recent years, with the operator losing ground to rivals AT&T and T-Mobile.

Verizon added just 55,000 wireless subscribers in Q1 this year, while AT&T added 294,000. While T-Mobile did not disclose official figures, extrapolations by Recon Analytics suggested total gains of around 520,000 subscribers.

Verizon’s new CEO Dan Schulman was appointed in October last year to reverse this slide, with the executive promising to aggressively pursue cost-cutting and restructuring. Whether these measures will include yet more job cuts, however, remain to be seen.

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