Verizon, the American telecom giant, is planning to lay off approximately 15,000 employees, accounting for about 15% of its total workforce in the United States. This is considered the largest layoff in the company’s history and is seen as a key step in the restructuring and cost transformation driven by the new CEO, Dan Schulman.
According to Reuters, the layoffs are expected to begin as early as next week and will mainly affect non-unionized management, with that segment of the workforce expected to be reduced by over 20%. Additionally, the company plans to convert around 180 company-owned retail stores into franchise operations to lower operational costs. A Verizon spokesperson declined to comment on these plans.
Verizon has been consistently streamlining its workforce in recent years. By the end of 2024, the company had around 100,000 employees in the U.S., with nearly 20,000 job cuts made over the past three years. Last year, Verizon reduced approximately 4,800 employees through a voluntary separation program, incurring around $2 billion in restructuring costs as a result. As early as 2018, the company also implemented a voluntary separation program for over 10,000 employees.
Schulman, who joined Verizon as CEO in October this year after departing from PayPal, took the helm at a time when the competition in the U.S. telecom market was intensifying. AT&T and T-Mobile offered significant discounts and trade-in deals for the launch of the new iPhone, aggressively competing for customers. In the third quarter, Verizon only added 44,000 postpaid subscribers, significantly lagging behind AT&T and T-Mobile, which added over a million customers.
Meanwhile, cable TV operators like Comcast and Charter are bundling mobile services and high-speed internet, grabbing market share and putting more pressure on Verizon.
Schulman stated last month that Verizon must undergo a “cost transformation” and a “reshaping of spending structure” to become a “leaner, more efficient, and more agile” company. He emphasized that the company will no longer rely on price increases to support revenue because the model of relying excessively on price hikes rather than user growth is unsustainable.
Verizon has long maintained the highest tariff levels in the industry, yet its stock price has only risen by about 8% in the past three years, significantly underperforming the nearly 70% increase in the S&P 500 index during the same period. Following the news of the layoff plan, the stock price briefly rose by approximately 1.5%.