T-Mobile USA has revised the number of
jobs that will be cut in its latest restructuring round.
The operator had said earlier this week
it would lay off 900 workers, but said Wednesday afternoon those cuts will be partially offset by the
addition of new employees mainly in the Puget Sound area of Washington, its
home state.
It will “move quickly” to hire
550 people, bringing the net number of jobs lost to just 350, less than half
the cuts previously estimated.
T-Mobile said the layoffs will not
affect its engineers, front-line retail employees or customer service reps in
its remaining call centers. Its call center workers were the primary targets of
a round of layoffs in March that closed seven facilities and slashed 1,900
jobs.
The new hires will “support the
needs of the business and strategic opportunities,” T-Mobile said. The
operator previously stated it was hiring 1,000 sales reps for its enterprise
segment, but clarified yesterday that those positions will take
“years” to fill, compared to the near-term horizon for the jobs
announced yesterday.
T-Mobile employed about 32,000 people at
the end of March, according to the most recent earnings statement of parent
company Deutsche Telekom. Its workforce has shrunk nearly 12 percent over the
past year.
