Verizon Communications plans to cut roughly 15,000 jobs in the coming week in its largest-ever round of layoffs, sources familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The telecommunications company also intends to shift about 200 retail stores to franchise operations, moving those employees off Verizon’s payroll.
Securities filings show that Verizon, the largest U.S. telecom provider by subscriber count, had about 100,000 employees as of February 2025, according to the WSJ. The cuts are part of a broader cost-reduction effort as the company faces increased competition in both the wireless and home internet markets, sources told the WSJ.
Verizon has lost postpaid phone subscribers for three straight quarters as rivals continue to lure customers away. In the latest quarter, the company reported a net loss of 7,000 consumer postpaid phone lines — missing Wall Street projections — while AT&T and T-Mobile continued to grow their postpaid bases, notes the WSJ.
New CEO Daniel Schulman, who took the helm in October, has pledged aggressive cost cuts as he attempts to reverse customer losses. Schulman previously served as CEO of PayPal and Virgin Mobile USA.
The company says it will shed or streamline unprofitable legacy businesses and become a more nimble organization.
Regarding the company’s third-quarter results, Schulman said “Verizon is at a critical inflection point,” WSJ reports.
“We have a tremendous amount of opportunity to be more efficient, to be scrappier. Cost reductions will be a way of life for us here,” he added.
According to the WSJ, Morgan Stanley analysts said that while it’s “possible—if not probable” for Verizon to improve its performance and remain competitive, executing Schulman’s vision in a mature U.S. telecom market will “not be easy or quick.”
Verizon Layoffs Add To Growing Corporate Job Reductions
Verizon joins a growing list of major companies that have reduced their workforce in recent months.
Meta laid off 600 employees from its Superintelligence Labs AI unit in October, AFROTECH™ previously reported. The company is on a mission to speed up product development, with the cuts affecting teams in FAIR AI research, product-focused AI, and AI infrastructure.
The United Parcel Service (UPS) shared in its third-quarter earnings report, released on Oct. 28, that it has eliminated about 34,000 jobs as part of a broad cost-cutting effort to boost profits, stay competitive, and regain investor confidence.
Amazon is eliminating about 14,000 corporate roles to simplify operations and respond more quickly to technological change.
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) announced on Nov. 5, 2025, that it will cut thousands of jobs in the fourth quarter as it shifts toward higher-growth areas such as AI consulting and software, saying the move aligns its workforce with evolving market demand, AFROTECH™ noted.
