- Charter is undertaking another round of layoffs, per Wall Street Journal
- The operator previously let go of over 1,000 call center staff
- New job cuts come months after Charter announced its $34.5B Cox merger
Layoffs keep on coming in telecom, as Charter reportedly plans to let go of 1,200 employees - just over 1% of its 95,000-person workforce.
A source familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal the job cuts will primarily impact corporate and back-office roles at Charter’s Stamford, Connecticut and across the country.
They added the layoffs won’t impact sales or service employees and that they are meant to streamline operations. But Charter has already trimmed a decent chunk of its customer service staff.
The operator earlier this year disclosed it will shut down call centers in Akron, Ohio and Worcester, Massachusetts, which affected over 400 workers. In 2024, Charter let go of more than 1,000 call center employees across four states, impacting roughly 1.2% of its workforce.
Charter’s latest layoff report comes as fellow cable operator Comcast also plots staff cuts. Both companies are trying to keep the broadband ship afloat amid persistent subscriber declines.
Comcast starting in January will reportedly lay off a yet-unknown number of employees in Connectivity and Platforms, which makes up the company’s broadband, mobile and pay TV businesses.
In Charter’s case, the upcoming layoffs may have to do with its pending $34.5 billion merger with Cox, per some anonymous comments on TheLayoff.com.
Charter announced the deal in May, noting it will combine its 31.4 million customer base with Cox’s 6.3 million-subscriber footprint. On the worker front, CEO Chris Winfrey assured investors the company will “rapidly onshore service jobs, insource jobs currently with contractors and we expect to hire field sales personnel in local markets.”
It's worth noting Charter’s workforce in recent years has remained relatively stable compared to say, AT&T or Verizon. The operator at the end of 2019 had just over 95,000 employees and 94,500 as of the end of 2024.
However, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union is skeptical the Charter/Cox deal will be beneficial for its workers. CWA previously told Fierce such a large-scale merger “will further entrench the power of cable giant Charter to squeeze workers harder” and it urged regulators to carefully review the deal.