The layoffs could affect 15,000 people, or 15% of the company’s workforce, as early as next week.
Published November 13, 2025
Verizon plans to cut about 15,000 jobs, the largest in carrier history, as part of a reorganization under a new CEO.
Reuters reported on Thursday that layoffs were looming, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.
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The job cuts will affect 15% of the company’s U.S.-based workforce and are expected to take effect as early as next week, the people said.
A Verizon spokesperson declined to comment.
The layoffs, which follow former PayPal president Dan Schulman’s appointment as CEO in early October, are aimed at nonunion management at the company and are expected to affect more than 20% of the company’s workforce, one person said. Verizon also plans to transition about 180 company-owned retail stores to franchise operations, the person added.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the cuts.
Verizon is battling increased competition as subscriber growth slows and wary consumers become reluctant to buy premium wireless plans. As the U.S. wireless market matures, the company faces increasing pressure from rivals AT&T and T-Mobile.
Schulman said last month that Verizon understands it needs to make aggressive changes, including “transforming costs and fundamentally restructuring our expense base.”
“We will be a simpler, leaner, leaner business,” he added.
Schulman, who served on Verizon’s board for seven years, said he doesn’t want to raise prices and aims to become more customer-focused.
“Our financial growth has relied heavily on price increases. A strategic approach that relies too much on price without subscriber growth is not a sustainable strategy,” he said last month.
Verizon will have about 100,000 U.S. employees at the end of 2024 after cutting about 20,000 jobs over three years. Last year, the company announced it would cut 4,800 employees through a voluntary program and take on about $2 billion in costs. In 2018, Verizon announced that approximately 10,400 employees would leave the company under a pre-voluntary severance program.
Prevent subscribers from leaving
Verizon maintains one of the highest price points in the telecom sector, but analysts say this strategy will be difficult to maintain amid increased competition.
Craig Moffett, a senior analyst at MoffettNathanson, said the new CEO’s first promise will be to stem the hemorrhage of subscribers, and Verizon will need to subsidize expensive devices to keep a huge number of its subscribers from leaving.
“The obvious question was how Verizon was going to pay for it, and now we know that,” Moffett said. “What we don’t know is whether these cost savings will actually help offset higher planned maintenance costs for our customers.”
In recent years, Verizon spent $52 billion to acquire prime wireless C-band spectrum in a 2021 auction and signed a $20 billion deal to acquire Frontier Communications last year. It also spent $6 billion to acquire prepaid cell phone provider TracFone Wireless.
Verizon stock rose 1.3% in midday trading.
