Verizon is laying off greater than 13,000 staff in mass job reductions that arrive because the telecommunications big says it should “reorient” its whole firm.
The job cuts started on Thursday, per to a workers memo from Verizon CEO Dan Schulman. Within the letter, which was seen by The Related Press, Schulman mentioned Verizon’s present value construction “limits” the corporate’s potential to speculate—pointing significantly to buyer experiences.
“We should reorient our whole firm round delivering for and delighting our prospects,” Schulman wrote. He added that the corporate wanted to simplify its operations “to handle the complexity and friction that gradual us down and frustrate our prospects.”
Verizon had practically 100,000 full-time staff as of the top of final yr, in line with securities filings. A spokesperson confirmed that the layoffs introduced Thursday account for about 20% of the corporate’s administration workforce, which isn’t unionized.
Verizon has confronted rising competitors in each the wi-fi cellphone and residential web house—significantly from AT&T, T-Cellular, and different large market gamers. New management on the firm has burdened the necessity to proper the corporate’s course.
Schulman took the CEO seat simply final month. Within the firm’s most up-to-date earnings, he acknowledged that Verizon’s trajectory was at a “important inflection level”—and mentioned, reasonably than incremental modifications, Verizon would “aggressively rework” its operations.
For its third quarter of 2025, Verizon posted earnings of $4.95 billion and $33.82 billion in income. The provider reported continued subscriber progress for its pay as you go wi-fi providers, however it misplaced a web 7,000 postpaid connections.
Information of coming layoffs at Verizon was reported last week by The Wall Avenue Journal. The outlet says that the 13,000 job cuts mark the largest-ever spherical of layoffs on the firm.
Past the cuts throughout Verizon’s workforce, Schulman mentioned that the New York firm would additionally “considerably scale back” its outsourced and different exterior labor bills.
It’s a tricky time for the job market general—and Verizon isn’t the one firm to announce sizeable workforce reductions not too long ago. More and more layoffs have piled up at firms like Amazon, UPS, Nestlé, and extra.
Some firms have pointed to rising operational prices spanning from U.S. President Donald Trump’s barrage of latest tariffs and shifts in client spending. Others cite company restructuring extra broadly—or are redirecting cash to artificial intelligence. Regardless, such cuts have raised employee anxieties throughout sectors.
Schulman on Thursday acknowledged that “modifications in expertise and within the financial system are impacting the workforce throughout all industries.” He mentioned that Verizon had established a $20 million “Reskilling and Profession Transition Fund” for employees departing the corporate.
Shares of Verizon had been basically flat Thursday.
—Wyatte Grantham-Philips, AP enterprise author
