T-Mobile US CEO Sievert said the roles being eliminated represent those that are ‘duplicative’ or are no longer relevant to the company’s current direction
T-Mobile US this week revealed plans to cut 5,000 jobs, or about 7% of its workforce. According to a company-wide email from CEO Michael Sievert, workers across the country will be impacted, with those working in corporate, back-office and some technology positions taking the brunt of it. Retail and customer service teams will not be impacted.
Specifically, Sievert stated that the roles being eliminated represent those that are “primarily duplicative” or are no longer relevant to the company’s current direction. That direction, he continued, involves using advanced tools like artificial intelligence to stay competitive. However, he did also mention challenges related to attracting and retaining customers.
“This is a large change, and an unusual one for our company,” Sievert wrote. “Because of this, we do not envision making additional largescale reductions across the company again in the foreseeable future.” Layoffs would come over the next five weeks, he added.
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Notably, the layoffs at T-Mobile US come a few years after former-CEO John Legere was bullish about the merger with rival Sprint creating more jobs. “[L]et me be really clear on this increasingly important topic. This merger is all about creating new, high-quality, high-paying jobs, and the New T-Mobile will be jobs-positive from Day One and every day thereafter. That’s not just a promise. That’s not just a commitment. It’s a fact,” he wrote in a 2019 blog post.
T-Mobile US’ announcement can be added to a growing list of telecom and technology layoffs taking place around the world amid rising costs and unstable market conditions. In May, for example, BT said it will cut up to 55,000 jobs — more than 40% of its workforce by 2030 — 10,000 of which will likely be replaced by AI. Vodafone, too, announced massive layoffs as part of a $1.1 billion dollar cost-cutting effort, with several hundreds of jobs on the chopping block. Beyond telecom, Meta, Microsoft, Google and Amazon have all cut jobs over the past year.