AT&T to lay off more than 4,000 employees

by Grant Gross

April 18, 2008 —

Telecom giant AT&T plans to lay off 1.5 percent of its employees, primarily
in management, in an effort to streamline its operations, the company announced
Friday.

AT&T had about 310,000 employees at the end of 2007, meaning the layoffs
would affect about 4,650 workers. The layoffs are the "next step"
in streamlining company operations in an effort to operate more efficiently
after recent mergers between parent company SBC, the old AT&T and BellSouth,
the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

AT&T expects its total number of employees to remain stable in 2008 "as
the company hires additional employees to support growth areas," AT&T
said in the filing. In 2007, the company added about 7,000 employees, said Walt Sharp, an AT&T spokesman.

"We do have a lot of growth in other areas," Sharp said.

The company began notifying the affected employees on Friday, and AT&T gave the employees a 60-day notice, Sharp said. "The bottom line is that we remain one of America's largest employers," AT&T said in a statement. "And we are putting jobs where our customers are."

The company did not announce a time line for the layoffs in its SEC filing.
The streamlining effort is focused on jobs that don't interact with customers,
the company said.

"This initiative is part of the company's move from a collection of regional
companies to one AT&T focused on customers," AT&T said in the filing.

The layoffs mean AT&T will take a one-time charge of US $374 million during
the first quarter of 2008. AT&T is scheduled to announce its first-quarter
earnings Tuesday.

AT&T reported a net income of $3.1 billion for the fourth quarter of 2007.
It's revenue for the quarter was $30.3 billion.

IDG News Service