On Thursday, the Trump administration released the September jobs report, showing 119,000 jobs created in the month of September. However, hours later, Verizon announced plans to lay off nearly 13,000 workers, affecting the otherwise optimistic news from the jobs report.
Verizon is beginning to lay off more than 13,000 workers on Thursday in an effort to trim down staff and increase investments. The company’s leadership stated that they must reorient their entire company around delivering for and delighting customers, as per the CEO Dan Schulman. He noted that the company was aiming to address the complexity and friction that slow us down and frustrate our customers by simplifying operations.
Layoffs will reportedly account for 20% of their workforce, which included 100,000 full-time employees at the end of last year. The company lost 7,000 net consumer postpaid phone connections, according to reports. Their analysts previously forecast a gain of 19,000.
Competition remains rampant as both AT&T and T-Mobile have steadily grown postpaid subscriber counts. Schulman was appointed as CEO last month to help trim down on spending and expand earning potential. He previously served as CEO at PayPal and Virgin Mobile USA.
The news from Verizon comes as several other big companies have announced layoffs right before the Christmas season. In October, Amazon announced it was also cutting a decent percentage of its workforce. Amazon will slash 30,000 corporate jobs starting Tuesday, according to a report — unleashing one of the US’s biggest job bloodbaths this century as the company aggressively revamps its business with artificial intelligence. Sources told Reuters the reductions — which amount to 9% of Amazon’s global office-based workforce of 350,000 — will begin Tuesday and could unfold over several weeks. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Seattle-based web giant’s sweeping layoffs mark the biggest in a series of major contractions for the company, which has slashed tens of thousands of jobs since CEO Andy Jassy took over from the company’s billionaire founder Jeff Bezos in 2021. In 2022 and 2023, Jassy cut a total of 27,000 jobs, Reuters reported. Those cuts targeted Amazon Web Services, its devices group and entertainment units including Prime Video and Twitch.