Verizon is laying off more than 13,000 employees in mass job reductions that arrive as the telecommunications giant says it must “reorient” 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 “limits” the company’s ability to invest—pointing particularly to customer experiences.
“We must reorient our entire company around delivering for and delighting our customers,” Schulman wrote. He added that the company needed to simplify its operations “to address the complexity and friction that slow us down and frustrate our customers.”
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—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 took the CEO seat just last month. In the company’s most recent earnings, he stated that Verizon’s trajectory was at a “critical inflection point”—and said, rather than incremental changes, Verizon would “aggressively transform” 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.
News of coming layoffs at Verizon was reported last week by The Wall Street Journal. The outlet says that the 13,000 job cuts mark the largest-ever round of layoffs at the company.
Beyond the cuts across Verizon’s workforce, Schulman said that the New York company would also “significantly reduce” its outsourced and other outside labor expenses.
It’s a tough time for the job market overall—and Verizon isn’t the only company to announce sizeable workforce reductions recently. More and more layoffs have piled up at companies like Amazon, UPS, Nestlé, and more.
Some companies have pointed to rising operational costs spanning from U.S. President Donald Trump’s barrage of new tariffs and shifts in consumer spending. Others cite corporate restructuring more broadly—or are redirecting money to artificial intelligence. Regardless, such cuts have raised worker anxieties across sectors.
Schulman on Thursday recognized that “changes in technology and in the economy are impacting the workforce across all industries.” He said that Verizon had established a $20 million “Reskilling and Career Transition Fund” for workers departing the company.
Shares of Verizon were essentially flat Thursday.
—Wyatte Grantham-Philips, AP business writer