Verizon plans its largest layoffs

Verizon is preparing its largest round of layoffs, with about 15,000 jobs expected to be cut as early as next week, according to a person familiar with the plan. Reuters reports that this will be one of the first major steps by the company’s new chief executive as he works to reshape the business in a crowded wireless market.

The company has been under pressure for years as it fights to keep customers from switching to older rivals that offer cheaper phone plans. It also now faces added heat from cable companies, which bundle mobile service with home internet and often promote lower prices. A Verizon spokesperson declined to comment on the layoffs or the broader plan.

The layoffs will affect roughly 15% of the workforce and will hit non-union management ranks the hardest, the source said. Those roles are expected to shrink by more than 20%. Verizon also plans to shift about 180 of its company-owned retail stores into franchised locations, continuing a long-running effort to reduce overhead.

Dan Schulman, who took over as CEO in early October after leading PayPal, has stepped into the job at a time when AT&T and T-Mobile are pushing aggressive discounts, especially during new iPhone launches. These deals are aimed at keeping existing customers and pulling in more subscribers—an area where Verizon has been losing ground.

Last month, Schulman said the company needs major changes, including “cost transformation” and a reset of its spending. “We will be a simpler, leaner and scrappier business,” he said.

The numbers show why he may feel pressed to act. In the third quarter, Verizon added only 44,000 monthly bill-paying wireless customers. AT&T gained more, and T-Mobile topped both of them with more than 1 million net additions. Cable firms like Comcast and Charter have also chipped away at the market by offering mobile plans tied to their internet packages.

Investors reacted to the job-cut news with a small bump. Verizon’s shares rose about 1.5%, though the stock has barely moved in the last three years. It is up only 8% during that time, compared with the S&P 500’s nearly 70% climb.

Schulman, who served on Verizon’s board for seven years before becoming CEO, has said he wants the company to be more focused on customer needs and less reliant on raising prices. Verizon continues to have the highest prices among major carriers.

“Our financial growth has relied too heavily on price increases,” he said last month. “A strategic approach that relies too much on price without subscriber growth is not a sustainable strategy.”

At the end of 2024, Verizon had around 100,000 employees in the U.S., down nearly 20,000 over three years. Last year, the company cut 4,800 jobs through a voluntary program and recorded a charge of nearly $2 billion. A similar voluntary plan in 2018 led about 10,400 employees to leave.

Craig Moffett, a senior analyst at MoffettNathanson, said Schulman’s top priority has been to stop customer losses. That will likely mean offering costly device subsidies to many subscribers. “The obvious question was how Verizon planned to pay for that. Now we know,” Moffett said. But he added that it is still unclear whether the latest cuts will balance out the higher spending needed to keep customers from leaving.

The company has also taken on large expenses in recent years, including $52 billion for wireless spectrum in 2021 and a $20 billion deal for Frontier Communications. It also bought TracFone Wireless for $6 billion. For the record, The Wall Street Journal first reported the planned layoffs from Verizon.

(Photo by José Matute)

See also: Verizon is building a 6G alliance with telecoms’ biggest players

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Tags: at&t, internet, network, t-mobile, telecoms, verizon, wireless