T-Mobile US, one of the country’s largest mobile phone service carriers, has announced plans to cut approximately 5,000 jobs or around 7% of its workforce. The job losses will take place over the next five weeks and will primarily affect corporate and back office roles, as well as some technology positions. Retail and customer service teams, however, will not be part of the cuts. According to CEO Michael Sievert, the affected roles are either duplicative or no longer fit with the company’s current priorities and changes.
Sievert attributed the decision to rising costs of attracting and retaining customers, stating that the company needs to “move at the speed of technology” by using artificial intelligence and other tools to meet customer needs and stay competitive. In addition, the company wants to get “efficiently focused on a finite set of winning strategies.” As a result, T-Mobile will book a pre-tax charge of around 450 million US dollars in the third quarter related to the job cuts.
T-Mobile US
Laid-off employees will receive severance payments based on tenure, 60 days minimum of transition leave, career transition services, and other benefits. This marks the latest in a string of mass job cuts across various industries, following similar actions by companies such as Google, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft.
The Bellevue, Washington-based company became one of the country’s largest mobile phone service carriers in 2020 after buying rival Sprint. In May, T-Mobile also announced plans to acquire Mint Mobile, partly owned by actor Ryan Reynolds, in a cash-and-stock purchase worth up to 1.35 billion dollars. Despite the job cuts, T-Mobile reported a second-quarter profit of 2.22 billion dollars and posted total service revenues of 15.74 billion dollars. However, the company’s stock fell 2% in afternoon trading on Thursday following the announcement.
