AT&T Is Cutting Thousands of Jobs, Closing 250 Stores in the U.S.

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AT&T is laying off staff and closing stores claims a report from Axios. The staffing cuts are company-wide and include people from the executive, management, and retail branches.

AT&T did not provide an exact number of people but did tell Axios that the number of jobs being shuttered was sizable. More on that below.

Besides laying off staff, AT&T also is closing 250 stores nationwide. These include both AT&T retail outlets as well as Cricket Wireless locations, which is AT&T’s prepaid brand.

These closures were allegedly already planned for 2020, but the timing was accelerated due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Axios report suggests the company is trimming thousands of employees from its ranks.

These pink-slipped workers include up to 3,400 technician and clerical positions as well as 1,300 retail jobs across the 250 retail stores. The hardest-hit group outside of retail will be non-payroll workers, most of whom work outside the US.

Employees who are let go reportedly will receive severance pay along with six months of health care. The wireless carrier also will try to offer affected employees another job within the company if possible.

AT&T blamed the cutbacks on lagging consumer interest in legacy products and the effect of the global pandemic on sales.

Not everyone is on board with these cutbacks. Communications Workers of America president Chris Shelton criticized AT&T for laying off workers at this critical time of economic recovery. Nearly every country across the world is trying to restart its economy after the coronavirus pandemic forced everything to shut down.

“AT&T could help lead the country toward recovery by partnering with its workforce to build next-generation networks. Instead, the company is adding to the pain of the recession already underway.”

Communications Workers of America president Chris Shelton

AT&T kicked off 2020 with a controversial round of layoffs after it inked a deal with an outsourcing firm. The job reduction replaced veteran workers with cheaper foreign and domestic employees.

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