Verizon CEO Defends 13,000 Layoffs Amid Market Share Struggles
Verizon’s new CEO, Dan Schulman, has vigorously defended the recent decision to eliminate 13,000 jobs, framing the mass layoffs as an "inevitable" step to save the company from continued decline. In a candid all-hands meeting on December 5, Schulman attributed the telecom giant's struggles to "self-inflicted wounds," including complex promotions and price hikes that have alienated customers and eroded market share.
The drastic workforce reduction, executed in November, was part of a strategy to "simplify" operations and free up capital to improve the customer value proposition. Schulman, who took the helm in October following the ousting of Hans Vestberg, argued that minor cuts would have been insufficient. "If we don’t have enough money to put back into our value proposition to customers, we are going to continue to shrink," he told employees.
The layoffs come at a time when Verizon is grappling with significant performance issues. The company reported a loss of 7,000 postpaid phone customers in the third quarter of 2025, with a churn rate rising to 0.91%. Schulman noted that Verizon has lost 500 to 700 basis points of market share over the last five years. He frankly admitted that customer satisfaction scores are lagging behind competitors like T-Mobile, a situation exacerbated by price increases that have "irritated" subscribers.
Verizon's job cuts were a major contributor to a spike in unemployment within the telecommunications sector. According to data from Challenger, Gray, & Christmas, the industry saw over 15,000 job cuts in November alone—the highest monthly total since April 2020. This move aligns with a broader trend of workforce reductions across the U.S., where job cuts surpassed 1.1 million for the year, with the tech and telecom sectors being particularly hard hit.
https://www.thestreet.com/retail/verizon-ceo-reveals-mistakes-that-led-to-over-13000-layoffs