AT&T Slashing 12,000 Jobs

U.S.'s Largest Telecom Announces Plans To Cut 4 Percent Of Workforce Throughout 2009

(CBS/AP)  AT&T Inc. joined the recession's parade of layoffs Thursday by announcing plans to cut 12,000 jobs, about 4 percent of its work force.

The Dallas-based telecommunications company - the United States' largest - said the job cuts will take place in December and throughout 2009.

It was not immediately clear what departments and cities would suffer the cuts. However, like most telecom companies, AT&T has been seeing many customers defect from landline phones to wireless services, and the company noted that it would still be hiring in 2009 in parts of the business that offer cell phone service and broadband Internet access.

The company also said it plans to reduce capital spending next year.

AT&T plans to take a charge of about $600 million in the fourth quarter to pay for severance costs. The company noted that many of its non-management employees have guaranteed jobs because of union contracts. All affected workers will receive severance "in accordance with management policies or union agreements," the company said.

The announcement tempered news that unemployment dropped in the last week. The Labor Department said Thursday initial claims for benefits fell to a seasonally adjusted 509,000, from a revised 530,000 for the previous week. The latest figure is significantly below analysts' estimates of 537,000, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.

[rudy6543]

Interesting. I wonder, does AT&T actually have US workers anymore? Everytime I called them in the past, I always had to deal with someone in India. Surely, the people working for dirt wages in India aren''t being fired.

[easeup-2009]

The joys of outsourcing.

I was depressed last night so I called ''''Lifeline''''.
Got a call center in Pakistan. I told them I was suicidal.

They got all excited and asked if I could drive a truck and knew where Bush lived.

Posted by consh8theUSA at 02:28 PM : Dec 04, 2008

Why do you post the same irrelevant idiocy on EVERY board?

[incog-nito]

Not to worry. The jobs will come back. You just need to learn Chinese or Hindi, and be prepared to move to another country at a moment''s notice.

[ocasanas]

I feel sorry for the normal employees, but I don''t feel sorry at all for the upper management and all their supervisors. These people have always been thieves, and their spin offs too.

[kittykatty2]

AT&T has been doing this for years in the exact same numbers. Why is it news now?

[matrixrx2003]

AT&T has the Worst Customer Service EVER. You Phone Bill is NEVER THE SAME AMOUNT each month.

My phone serice is with Another Provider and my Bill is the SAME EACH MONTH unless I go over my Long Distance Minutes which I hardly ever do.

AT&T is a bunch of Crooks & I will never give them a PENNY of my money as long as I live. I will NOT EVEN USE THEM FOR CELL PHONE SERVICE when I get another cell phone I will go with anybody but AT&T.

I wish AT&T would go belly up and just go away !

[drivelphobe]

Why don''t they just increase the ETFs to $500? These crooks should go down the toilet.

[impeach___w]

Hopefully, they will close the ileagal wiretapping division.

[omega40]

The best thing to do before executing a stimulous plan is to learn what stops consumers from becoming confident and optimistic.

Posted by Pensacola98

What stops consumers from being optimistic is the lack of job security fostered by the lax standards governing outsourcing and the importation of cheap foreign labor. Only a bunch of idiots could have ever envisioned that an economy mostly kept afloat by consumer spending could send its best paying jobs overseas while transitioning itself into a low-wage service sector economy. Still, here we are thanks to the traitorous actions of both parties against their fellow countrymen. Have you noticed that the economy is collapsing around them and they still refuse to point their finger at what is clearly the root cause?

[consumerx-2009]

Serves AT&T right. Recently dropped landline and all services with AT&T. For years, they''ve allowed marketing, promoters, solicitation, and general BS to come into my living room. Perhaps AT&T should have taken a pro-active stance with legislation and encouraged Congress to pass legislation to protect the consumer from illegal marketing calls and the constant misuse of private residential telephone lines. No one wants a landline anymore, because we are sick and tired of the misuse and abuse of a phoneline WE pay for. Consumers try to resolve this harassment themselves, only to be met with grief from AT&T and once getting a successful trace trap, then local LE refuses to release records of the offender. I had to hire an atty to obtain my own phone records and SUE the company illegally calling my home to get them to stop. Did so, then DROPPED AT&T who allowed it to happen and then wouldn''t assist me.

[libsh8theusa]

The pitfalls of outsourcing
.



I was depressed last night so I called ''Lifeline''.
Got a call center in Pakistan. I told them I was suicidal.

They got all excited and asked if I could drive a truck.

[pensacola98]

The reason AT&T cuts jobs is because their growth is not high enough to support it''s existing staff. Staff is employed to manage capital projects and sales based on a given growth rate. When the growth numbers fall below expectations, jobs are cut.

For Obama to measure the economy with a J-O-B, growth is required. When consumer confidence returns with spending and credit flows are healthy, growth returns.

Obama is working through plans for antoher economic stimulous package, but consumers will have to express optimism and confidence, or the growth won''t occur.

The best thing to do before executing a stimulous plan is to learn what stops consumers from becoming confident and optimistic.

Most have answered with the war. Some answered with inflation and the price of gasoline. Well, gasoline prices are down, but food prices haven''t fallen..just yet.

For most citizens, reducing financial vulernability will require saving more of their money. There is little that the government can do, unless they reduce interest rates at the consumer levels and help those deep in debt with high interest cards. We have 6-12 months of penance to pay for the sins of our banking system.

[presjfk]

The tax code should be chnaged so that when companies hire they get a tax break, and wen they fire they get taxed more.

In Europe companies are taxed at a very high rate. This means that spending money on salaries, R&D, infrastructure - everything, these expenses reduce the tax burden on companies. In other words, use your money or lose it to taxes.

In the past election McCain liked to say that the USA had one of the highest corp. taxes int he world. This was and is a lie. While on paper US companies have a high tax, the reality is that with the endless supply of tax loopholes, our companies are among the lowest taxed anywhere int he world.

Changing our tax system to force companies to spend their money or lose it to taxes makes sense to me. There should be thresholds based on number of employees and revenues generated to prevent smaller companies from being overly burdened by such tax policies.

[armydog2]

F@cking Merry X-Mas!!! you are out of work.

[jeditrip]

they could not wait until january to do this...firing people at christmas time should be against the law.

[earache4]

Merry Christmas!