Verizon confirms plans to lay off 13,000 employees

Verizon is set to lay off more than 13,000 employees and every part of the company will be going through some changes, CEO Dan Schulman has confirmed. The company is reducing its headcount and cutting back on outsourcing and other external labor expenses in service of "building a stronger Verizon," Schulman wrote in a memo to staff. The company will also convert 179 retail stores that it owns into franchised outlets and it will close one store.

In September, Verizon said it had around 100,000 full-time employees, so the layoffs constitute about 13 percent of the workforce. Over the previous three years, Verizon had cut about 20,000 jobs. Meanwhile, a $20 billion takeover of telecoms company Frontier Communications is set to close early next year.

It was reported last week that Verizon was set to cull around 15,000 jobs as part of a cost-cutting drive in the face of sterner competition and a drop in postpaid wireless customers. Schulman — a former PayPal CEO who took on his current job in October — indicated during an earnings call last month that the company would “take bold and fiscally responsible action to redefine Verizon's trajectory at this critical inflection point for our company. These will not be incremental changes."

In Thursday’s memo, Schulman framed the downsizing as an attempt to create a leaner, more customer-focused operation. “As a customer-first culture, we have to align our teams and resources to create new value for customers and build a faster, stronger and more proactive Verizon,” Schulman wrote. “To do that, we must simplify our operations to address the complexity and friction that slow us down and frustrate our customers.”

Verizon says it has set up a $20 million reskilling and career transition fund to support the workers it’s turfing out. “This fund will focus on skill development, digital training and job placement to help our people take their next steps,” Schulman claimed. “Verizon is the first company to set up a fund to specifically focus on the opportunities and necessary skill sets as we enter the age of AI.”