NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Verizon is laying off more than 13,000 employees in mass job reductions that arrive as the telecommunications giant says it must 鈥渞eorient鈥� its entire company.
The job cuts began on Thursday, per to a staff memo from Verizon CEO Dan Schulman. In the letter, which was seen by The Associated Press, Schulman said Verizon’s current cost structure 鈥渓imits鈥� the company’s ability to invest 鈥� pointing particularly to customer experiences.
鈥淲e must reorient our entire company around delivering for and delighting our customers,鈥� Schulman wrote. He added that the company needed to simplify its operations 鈥渢o address the complexity and friction that slow us down and frustrate our customers.鈥�
Verizon had nearly 100,000 full-time employees as of the end of last year, according to securities filings. A spokesperson confirmed that the layoffs announced Thursday account for about 20% of the company’s management workforce, which isn’t unionized.
Verizon has faced rising competition in both the wireless phone and home internet space 鈥� particularly from AT&T, T-Mobile and other big market players. New leadership at the company has stressed the need to right the company’s direction.
Schulman became CEO just last month. In the company’s most recent earnings, he stated that Verizon鈥檚 trajectory was at a 鈥渃ritical inflection point” 鈥� and said, rather than incremental changes, Verizon would 鈥渁ggressively transform鈥� its operations.
For its third quarter of 2025, Verizon posted earnings of $4.95 billion and $33.82 billion in revenue. The carrier reported continued subscriber growth for its prepaid wireless services, but it lost a net 7,000 postpaid connections.
海角社区app of coming layoffs at Verizon was by The Wall Street Journal. The outlet that the 13,000 job cuts mark the largest-ever round of layoffs at the company.
Beyond the cuts across Verizon鈥檚 workforce, Schulman said that the New York company would also 鈥渟ignificantly reduce鈥� its outsourced and other outside labor expenses.
It鈥檚 a tough time for the job market overall 鈥� and Verizon isn鈥檛 the only company to announce sizeable workforce reductions recently. at companies like Amazon, UPS, Nestl茅 and more.
Some companies have pointed to rising operational costs spanning from U.S. President Donald Trump鈥檚 barrage of new and shifts in consumer spending. Others cite corporate restructuring more broadly 鈥� or are redirecting money to artificial intelligence. Regardless, such cuts have raised worker anxieties across sectors.
Schulman on Thursday recognized that 鈥渃hanges in technology and in the economy are impacting the workforce across all industries.鈥� He said that Verizon had established a $20 million 鈥淩eskilling and Career Transition Fund鈥� for workers departing the company.
Shares of Verizon fell just over 1% by Thursday’s close.
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