Thousands of telecom jobs were cut this year alone, and automation threatens to claim an even bigger number in future.

The Staff, Light Reading

December 19, 2022

3 Min Read
2022 in review: Job changes and layoffs

The telco workforce has taken a battering in the last few years as employers have cut thousands of jobs from their payrolls. Mergers and takeovers explain some of the shrinkage, with Deutsche Telekom alone slashing 4,000 US jobs this year despite an earlier pledge that its tie-up with Sprint would be "jobs-positive" from the outset.

But the constant push for efficiency in a low-growth sector is also culpable. As some older staff retire, their roles are simply disappearing with them.

Amid an energy crisis and worsening recession, next year could bring more bad news for employees as companies try to protect their margins. Cuts have now spread to the technology sector following years of growth, with Facebook revealing plans to cut 11,000 jobs, or 13% of its total headcount.

For telecom staff, the big uncertainty is what impact automation will eventually have. If networks can eventually run themselves, chatbots replace assistants and purchases are all online, will a big operator need more than just a few hundred employees in the future? Or will staff be redeployed on more value-generating tasks, as bosses often insist?

While you ponder those questions, here's a roundup of our top jobs-related stories from 2022.

Figure 1: (Source: Unsplash) (Source: Unsplash)

2/15/22 - How T-Mobile broke promises on jobs amid US telco workforce cull
(Iain Morris, International Editor)

3/15/22 - Arm chops 1,000 jobs
(Ken Wieland, Contributing Editor)

3/29/22 - Huawei cut 10K non-R&D jobs in two years but still got bigger
(Iain Morris, International Editor)

3/29/22 - Nokia still has up to 8K jobs to cut after slow progress on turnaround
(Iain Morris, International Editor)

6/8/22 - Leading telcos in Europe and US have cut 292K jobs since 2015
(Iain Morris, International Editor)

7/7/22 - After mass layoffs, Parallel Wireless works to soothe customers
(Mike Dano, Editorial Director, 5G & Mobile Strategies)

8/31/22 - T-Mobile's 'organizational shifts' cut employees from network division
(Mike Dano, Editorial Director, 5G & Mobile Strategies)

10/19/22 - Cox cuts 'very small percentage' of workforce
(Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor)

10/20/22 - Starry halts FWA buildout, lays off 500 employees
(Mike Dano, Editorial Director, 5G & Mobile Strategies)

10/21/22 - AT&T quietly cuts another 2,500 jobs
(Iain Morris, International Editor)

11/7/22 - A wave of job cuts is crashing into the tech sector
(Iain Morris, International Editor)

11/9/22 - Zuckerberg admits to mistakes as he cuts 11,000 Facebook jobs
(Iain Morris, International Editor)

11/10/22 - DT has axed 4,000 US jobs this year despite T-Mobile pledge
(Iain Morris, International Editor)

11/15/22 - Altice USA hiring freeze covers most job areas
(Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor)

11/17/22 - Cisco warns of layoffs and a $600M restructuring bill
(Iain Morris, International Editor)

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