The job cut hit parade line just got 15,000 more members.
Verizon Looks to Slash Expenses
The Wall Street Journal reports Verizon to Cut About 15,000 Jobs
Verizon Communications VZ is planning to cut roughly 15,000 jobs, looking to reduce costs as it contends with increased competition for both wireless service and home internet customers, according to people familiar with the matter.
The cuts, the largest ever for the carrier, are set to take place in the next week, the people said. The majority of the reduction is expected to be made through layoffs.
Verizon also plans to transition about 200 stores into franchised operations, which will shift employees off its payroll, one of the people said.
The company had about 100,000 employees as of February, according to securities filings.
In the most recent quarter, Verizon lost a net 7,000 consumer postpaid phone connections, while Wall Street analysts had forecast a gain of 19,000. AT&T and T-Mobile have both been growing postpaid subscriber counts.
Frantic Push to Reverse Decline
Also consider Inside the Frantic Push to Reverse Verizon’s Decline
Verizon had reported two consecutive quarters of losses of core consumer wireless customers, and was headed for a third. T-Mobile US, strengthened by its merger with Sprint, had valuable airwaves that made its often lower-cost service increasingly robust.
Vestberg, the former chief executive officer of the telecom-equipment maker Ericsson, wanted to continue pursuing a network-first strategy focused on ensuring that Verizon could tout the strength of its service. The company had put claims about its network’s muscle at the center of its marketing efforts since its “Can you hear me now?” campaign in the early 2000s.
But most of Verizon’s board wanted faster customer growth, especially ahead of a potential investor presentation in the works, according to people familiar with the matter. The board decided to tap one of Verizon’s directors, Daniel Schulman, to take over. Now, the new boss is promising to make major changes.
Growth from Where?
| Category | Number of Connections | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| US Wireless Retail | 146.1 million | Largest U.S. wireless carrier; includes postpaid and prepaid consumer plans. Up from ~144 million in 2023. |
| US Fixed Broadband | ~11 million (est.) | Includes Fios fiber and fixed wireless access (FWA); FWA alone reached ~3 million by end-2023, on track for 4-5 million by end-2025. |
| Total US Customers | ~157 million (est.) | Approximate total, combining wireless and broadband connections. Enterprise/business adds ~10-15 million additional lines, but these overlap with wireless. |
| Global Customers | ~157 million (est.) | No separate consumer reporting; global totals mirror U.S. figures, with minor additions from international business services (e.g., via Verizon Business Group, serving clients in 30+ countries but not as retail subscribers). |
These figures are derived from Verizon’s Q3 2025 earnings and industry reports. Wireless growth has been driven by 5G expansion and fixed wireless additions, while broadband lags behind competitors like AT&T in fiber deployments.
In the intensely competitive business, with population growth negligible, the primary way to get customers is offer better rates and better service.
Cutting 15,000 workers will certainly cut costs, but where’s the growth?
Q&A on Customers
Mish: How many customers has Verizon lost and ATT gained?
Grok: Verizon has experienced net losses in wireless retail postpaid phone subscribers throughout 2025, primarily attributed to price hikes, increased competition from T-Mobile and cable operators (e.g., Charter/Spectrum), and higher churn rates (around 0.91% in Q3). In contrast, AT&T has consistently posted net gains, driven by promotions on higher-tier plans with expanded hotspot data, 5G adoption, and bundling strategies. These figures focus on wireless retail postpaid phone net additions/losses, the standard industry metric for core customer changes, as it reflects high-value, contract-based subscribers. Prepaid and connected device (e.g., tablets) metrics are noted where available but are secondary.Data is as of Q3 2025 (latest available; Q4 reports expected January 2026). Cumulative net change for 2025 YTD: Verizon lost ~415,000; AT&T gained ~1.13 million.
| Quarter | Verizon Net Change | AT&T Net Change | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2025 | -289,000 (phones) -356,000 (total postpaid incl. devices) | +324,000 (phones) | Verizon’s largest loss, linked to early-2025 price increases on legacy plans and autopay discounts. AT&T beat expectations amid Verizon’s churn. |
| Q2 2025 | -51,000 (phones) Overall retail postpaid: +90,000 (driven by non-phone devices) | +400,000 (est. phones; total mobility: strong gains) | Verizon improved slightly but still negative on phones; prepaid added ~50,000. AT&T’s total wireless subs grew impressively. |
| Q3 2025 | -7,000 (phones) Overall retail postpaid: +74,000 (non-phone driven) | +405,000 (phones) | Verizon’s smallest phone loss, with business adding +51,000. AT&T’s gains fueled by premium plans; total wireless subs ~***** million (exact figure redacted in sources). |
Broader Context
- Total Subscriber Bases (End of Q3 2025): Verizon ~146 million wireless retail connections (down slightly YTD); AT&T ~***** million total wireless (up ~1-2% YTD, exact growth tied to gains).
- Why the Shift? Verizon’s aggressive pricing (e.g., $2/month smartwatch hikes, reduced autopay perks) drove 300,000 early losses to rivals and cable MVNOs. AT&T countered with value-focused bundles (e.g., Netflix/Max integrations) and fiber convergence (40% of fiber customers add mobile). Both added broadband subs (Verizon FWA: +121,000 in Q3; AT&T fiber/Internet Air: +300,000 quarterly), but wireless phone losses/gains are the headline metric.
- Outlook: Verizon aims to stabilize via “price lock” guarantees and equal promotions for existing customers. AT&T targets continued 3%+ wireless revenue growth into 2026.
Synopsis
Verizon hiked prices and now is slashing workers. In the process. it lost huge numbers of customers to ATT.
But with low population growth and customer poaching, what the growth plan other than price wars?
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Kudos to Revelio for providing an excellent set of jobs-related data.
November 10, 2025: Consumer Sentiment Drops Again, Current Conditions Hit New Record Low
What’s the matter with these people? Trump says the economy is humming.
Why do they continue to call them layoffs?
There was a time when General Motors or US Steel would “lay off” workers.
Then, after weeks or months they would call those skilled workers back.
These reductions today are terminations.
Severance, not layoff.
I guess somehow “layoff” sounds friendlier.
Everyone lies. Sad.
AT&T is going to start losing more customers 55+ as T-Mobile has an unlimited plan for $30 month.
for 4 lines/ per line.
No. We only have to do 2 lines.
1M WMT is doing nothing since Feb. CEO McMillon retired. John Furner might fire. 5% out of 2M in 2026 ==> 100K workers. Big 4: AMZN, WMT, Costco and Target. 2025 US sales, est: AMZN 500B. WMT online: $130B. John Furner might reduce payroll after 2025 Xmas. Horse vs the donkeys in the caravan: mag7 down 20% ==> $5T down. If the big 4 cut 15% ==> 500K workers down.
That’s another 15K jobs and yet the Fed “might” NOT cut on 12/10.
That’s crazy! They ONLY explanation is the Fed is playing political games trying to hurt Trump politically.
The jobs data trend appears to be down. Once the jobs data starts to be reported Trump is rightly going to go ballistic, if the trend holds.
Like I said yesterday, the shutdown was about slowing down the economy.
Trump is doing an excellent job of hurting himself politically all by himself with stupid policies and his wandering weenie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yt2sMQndys
But let’s assume for arguments sake that the Fed is 100% political and 100% anti-Trump. So what? Why isn’t Trump doing something about it? If the answer is he can’t then what’s the point of voting for Trump or arguing the Fed is political?
Are you arguing End the Fed? Well that’s been tried and it’s gone nowhere.
Trump is either a leader providing leadership or he’s a lame duck dunce. The latter seems more the case than the former.
All you can really do is profit from the situation as best you can. The way I’m doing it is with what works great when repubs are in power, short the market because they always crash it.
What a joke of a response.
You do realize that your 100% political premise would be grounds for Trump to immediately dismiss Trump & the entire FMOC.
Dude, that’s just dumb. Where’s your head? Do you even think before your start typing?
So the very fact that he hasn’t dismissed the Fed means it’s not being political doesn’t it? You’ve now just contradicted yourself like a true MAGA clown. But I would love for Trump to dismiss Trump.
Logical traps are easy to avoid if you think before you type.
You have the worst case of Dunning/Kruger I’ve ever seen.
TDS sufferers can’t help it.
This explains everything: https://www.reddit.com/r/CringeTikToks/comments/1owzxl1/glad_thats_all_cleared_up/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
What does that have to do with the article? And every business job cuts are always the POTUS fault? How about maybe its just bad management?
Don’t wonder why the phrase TDS was coined because you proved it.
His wandering weenie? are you a detective on the prowl, camera in hand
recording dilly dalliance’s? My you must be busy over the the DNC also.
Ben, the Fed has a dual mandate. The other half is inflation.
I think its only mandate should be inflation. Regardless, the Fed is right to be concerned about inflation. Unfortunately, it is clueless on how to measure it.
Bottom line. Unlikely to be political.
I’d like to know what anti Trump idiot appointed Powell in the first place! That leftist lunatic needs to have the full weight of the DOJ thrown at them!
Trump did in 2017
I’d say it’s more about the fed being trapped. If the continue to lower short term rates, long term rates could rise and create worse debt issues.
where does the white house get its data from? doordash
https://www.thehandbasket.co/p/wh-inflation-tamed-doordash-stats-jobs-report
The underlying Doordash report does report some price declines. So, I think the handbasket author isn’t being fair.
Still, your claim and link were interesting.
Billie/Lewinsky, Billie/ MSFT and Harvard/Summers: did u pd black and PR jail guards to kill Epstein.
Who is a suspect: two nerds and one snake.
Based on behavior, Trump is obviously a vastly better suspect.
15,000 layoffs mean more social safety net costs and fewer tax revenues. A big contributor to the coming recession. Cutting interest rates or expanding QE in a stagflationary economy will not benefit employment and exacerbate inflation. This is now a problem that must be repaired with fiscal medicine, and it will not taste good. Expenditures must be cut below revenues. Revenues over the last 100 years have averaged about 17% of GDP and not exceeded 20%, so raising taxes might tweak the problem, they will not repair it. The can kicking has reached the end of the road.
“After you kick the can down to the end of the road, knock down more trees and extend the road.”
– future “despair.com” meme?
Right, create a public infrastructure work that spends money you do not have. Extending the road is an an example of what we have been doing that does not work.
Did you feel like lecturing me because you thought I was advocating it, because you don’t want me to give them ideas, or because you’re so understandably tired of the shit they do that you just had to say it? 😉
I’m sorry you felt lectured. It was not the intention. I wanted to reinforce spending money we do not have is not a solution to our debt/deficit problem. And yes, I am tired of politicians trying to tax our way to prosperity via slogans like ‘tax the rich’ or americans will not pay the tariffs or pay for the wall among many other non-helpful gimmicks and outright false statements. Around 1919-20 the country was reeling in the aftermath of WW1 and the Spanish Flu pandemic. Congress cut spending by roughly 25% and a year and a half later the roaring 20’s commenced. We have done this before; we can do it again. It just takes patriot politicians willing to make the hard choices, not self-serving folks trying to get rich via a position.
Oh, you can fix the problem 100% by raising revenues. It’s just that no one actually is willing to sacrifice. It’s much better to demand cuts in areas that you don’t gain from so you don’t have to make any sacrifices.
Tax increases are an incentive to not work or invest, basically a slowing economy or economic activity that relocates, exactly what is happening with folks leaving New York for Florida. That is basically why we cannot tax our way out of the mess.
I wonder if the customers who sign up through Mint, US Mobile, etc. show up in these subscriber #s even though they are paying quite a bit less than what Verizon charges?
I ported my # from Google Fi to Verizon, but through US Mobile. I’m paying about $9/mo for my line (I’m in an $18/mo shared data pool with my wife who uses a different carrier). I got 3 other friends to sign up. I’m curious if we appear in their customer #’s…
T Mobil closed stores. Part timer flood existing stores. Oversupply reduces work hr/ week. Layoffs can increase workers wages/week.
40 years ago Joan Rivers was doing commercials for MCI.
The sun rose in the east this morning.
I was recently thinking the example of South Korea. I didn’t know they had reached 52 million (!) in a country the same size as Greece (10 million). Then they wonder why their apartments are so expensive.
At some point economics of scale start working against affordability, even against health: artificial or over-processed foods, sanitation challenges, environmental destruction.
If Koreans let the population reduce to 25 million, home prices will go down to encourage people to have families again. And so forth.
As far as Verizon, 3 years ago I asked them if they had a more economic package etc., they said no. I checked with Comcast, their package was offering me all the services at half the price, so I went there, dumping Vonage at the same time (Comcast covered everything). I saved about $120/month!
It was my fault in the past not watching the development of low-cost packages right under my nose, I had kept old services active for too long.
Next up will be Photoshop. I’ll probably pay more to retrain myself in another free package, but the mere feeling of getting rid of subscriptions is probably worth it.
In 2026 the gov will invest $1,000 in MAGA saving account for newly born babies, $2,200 tax deduction/child, $2,000 in healthcare and school vouchers for. Trump invested in essential industries. The bulk of the money is coming from the private sector and banks.
I always acted like cutting or reducing a subscription was a pay raise. Made me happier.
This is the way. These services are mostly a poor value. The only service that seems a good value is music streaming. That we can get nearly every song ever made for this price is a stupid good value.
I detest Verizon. I paid them to “park” my Cell number with them when I went to Europe in 2019. They screwed me.
I’ve been with Visible almost 2 years. $25 for unlimited data & hotspot which is a very good deal. My coverage is better than ATT & TM out at my dad’s house, for example. It’s amazing how rural areas still have terrible data coverage in a lot of areas.
They had 132K in 2020!
The real story here is new incoming CEO Dan Schulman, he knows the wireless business inside and out. He’s a bit of a jerk, but an extremely hard worker and no one can quibble with his bona fides.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Schulman
Just more people to turn those little screws at the new iPhone factory, or harvest food in the fields. Shit work. The new American dream.
Shit work is better than no work. Yes, I did pick cucumbers for money as a teenager so that “Americans won’t do that” line won’t work on me.
I bailed hay and picked strawberries as a teen (in addition to having a paper route as a preteen) along with working at a gas station pumping gas (remember full service – LOL) and working for my dad in the stockroom / making deliveries.
I’m still running my farms, and there is not a job I’d ask an employee to do that I haven’t done, or wouldn’t do. Always looking for that highest common denominator!
did you pick strawberries and bale hay on your family/neighbor’s farm or on a massive ag operation with 10,000 pickers? i think the point is that the 10,000-picker farm isn’t hiring mostly Americans, and this has been true for a long time.
I baled on a neighbors family farm.
I picked on a massive ag operation with a few hundred other pickers.
This was in Canada in the 80s BTW. Interestingly enough, even then they were hiring Jamaicans to oversee the picking operation (students).
I suspect you are right most modern farms aren’t hiring Americans to do this anymore. I’d also imagine minimum wage has had a lot to do with this because you can’t hire kids anymore for the low wages we made then (under minimum wage back then). Teens today miss out on a lot of entry level jobs because of this (fast food used to be entirely teens on under minimum wage along with 1 adult manager on duty).
In grade school I ran a dump rake for 35 cents a week plus room and board. Lol,
Their “growth” is going to be in the stock price, by issuing tons of debt for stock buybacks, now that they are cutting 15,000 expenses. Private Equity 101.
Exactly Mish. Well done. Take Verizon’s example and extend it out to most other businesses that can’t expand internationally and this becomes the conundrum for the economy.
Who’s going to buy houses from DR Horton, Lennar, Perry, etc as the population shrinks? Who’s going to rent out office buildings as the population shrinks and AI decimated white collar jobs?
And most importantly, who’s going to be paying taxes to support all the social programs?
“And most importantly, who’s going to be paying taxes to support all the social programs?”
There is the question. How to tax the robots.
Nobody’s paying the taxes now. Just borrowing.
Its the govts fault, bipartisan, that home sales are low. The $2 trillion in mortgage backed securities the fed is holding, rolling off at a trickle pace, are artificially keeping rates too low, therefore prices too high. And they keep trying to come up with gimmicks like 50 year mortgages instead of fixing the real problem because they want to inflate prices. More homes could sell if the govt was not meddling with mortgages and long term rates. Unfortunately, the common people dont understand this and unwittingly keep voting for it.
There are just too many companies announcing mass layoffs. Cutting interest rates isn’t going to bring back those jobs. It’s a recession.
Mamdani as a canary in a coal mine? If not enough wealth transfers inter-generationally, we could be looking at a massive lurch leftward, once enough elders expire. That precious legacy wealth may be estate-taxed away, or at least, there is a battle line. I have never underrated the power of elites to hang onto their stuff. But I’ve never seem these conditions in a modern US populace. My parents were born into a low-birth-rate world, just missing major wars, and that played out very well for them.
How can the Fed GDPNow running @ 4% that’s causing the CME rate cut probability to drop to 50% and we’re in a recession? Like seriously, I’m not saying you’re wrong.
I guess we need to add a new qualifier for recessions:
If a substantial % of the total population is in a recession while the wealthy are spending like crazy including tech companies buying NVidia chips like they’re going to stop making them, then the country is really in a recession per capita.
Why Gen Z Hates Work
When you spend hours each day watching influencers get rich without much effort, you forget what it takes to succeed in this world.
https://www.thefp.com/p/why-gen-z-hates-work-gen-z-culture
Anyone who is an expert makes what they do look easy. There are certain natural talents and skills that cannot be taught. It’s no different than youth wanting to be a pro athlete.
Except study after study has shown that there is no such thing as a ‘natural’ anywhere (music, sports, acting, business, etc etc).
Instead it’s a lot of hours and effort spent learning the craft in question (the 10,000 hour rule). Everyone reaches their personal ceiling at some point during those 10000 hrs (which is why you can’t just put in 10000 hrs and be a pro athlete).
No 5 foot four person is going to be a basketball star.
Agreed. I didn’t say 10000 hrs spent guarantees world class skill. I said it’s the entry level barrier for having world class skill (its why virtually every sports athlete interviewed talks about working harder in practice to improve).
After that entry level barrier of 10000 hrs you still need certain innate things (height for basketball, dexterity/ear for playing musical instruments etc) that not everyone has in order to get there.
In short, 10,000 hours is necessary, but not sufficient to reach world class skill.
I believe both are true. There are folks with natural talent and putting in those 10000 hours makes them stars. I was a very good high school quarterback. But there was no way I would be a very good big-college quarterback. The talent it takes to read a defense, go through rotations on 3 receivers and throw a 40 yard bullet between defenders in just seconds isn’t something that most could ever learn.