Dec 9, 2008 : Level 3 to Cut 450 Jobs

📅 December 9, 2008 - Joining the influx of layoff announcements that have been permeating the news as of late, Colorado-based telecommunications provider Level 3 (level3.com) has become the latest technology company to announce job cuts in light of the deepening US recession.


Level 3 said on Tuesday it will be cutting around eight percent of its workforce, translating to about 450 jobs, by the end of December from "various levels in the company and in multiple locations in North America."

The announcement comes less than a week after AT&T, the largest telecom services provider in the US, reported on Thursday plans to lay off 12,000 people, or about four percent of its workforce, and reduce new technology spending.

Verizon and Sprint Nextel have also recently reduced its workforce, cutting 2,700 and 4,000 jobs respectively in the third quarter. According to a Business Week report , this could be "the beginning of a torrent of staff reductions and spending cutbacks in the $1 trillion telecom industry."

Although Level 3 blames the worsening economic situation for its choice to trim its workforce, Rob Powell, a telecom buff and writer, explains that Level 3's decision shouldn't come as too much of a surprise.

"You could just see it coming, couldn't you?" writes Powell in his blog Telecom Ramblings. "First there was Unity, designed to make Level 3 Communications more efficient in selling, provisioning, and servicing its customers - and hence requiring fewer people. Second a worsening economy, with a credit crisis and debt maturities that make immediate cashflow more important than anything else. Third, the layoff parade starts elsewhere in the sector - at AT&T and PAETEC so far and of course outside the sector as well. And in the last but perhaps largest red flag, a new President and COO known for running lean operations joins the company, ready to apply his stamp on its business."

Towards the end of November, search engine giant Google also announced it was significantly reducing its contract worker staff but had no current plans to lay off employees.