CenturyLink Layoff Details Emerge

We know more about whom will be affected most by layoffs that CenturyLink announced earlier this month.

Of the 1,000 employees being let go, about 15 percent work in Colorado, which the largest number of the communications giant’s workers call home. CenturyLink confirmed that news for the Denver Post on Wednesday. The number represents about 2.5 percent of its workforce in the Centennial State.

“CenturyLink’s goal continues to be to provide quality customer service, products and a positive customer experience in Colorado,” Mark Molzen, a company spokesman, told Channel Partners in an email on Aug. 10. “We have the right assets and strategy to succeed. We are continuing to build greater automation and efficiency into our platforms, which will lower our costs in the future and enable faster speed to market and product innovation.”

It’s still a very small percentage of the 44,400 workers company-wide. CenturyLink operates approximately 12.1 million access lines in 37 states and serves 6.1 million broadband subscribers.

The move, which impacts employees “in a variety of positions and departments,” appears to be a necessary one.

“Business customers are a very important growth driver in terms of data services, and that’s where they had been struggling,” David Heger, an Edward D. Jones analyst, told the Post.

Competition in business services is fierce, both from CenturyLink’s large rivals and from a number of successful startups. The company does continue to make some hires in its higher growth areas. For example, it has more than 40 job openings posted on its website in Colorado alone.

The cost-cutting decision hasn’t been enough to buoy the company’s stock price in Wall Street’s recent selloff; it’s down nearly 8 percent since the Aug. 10 announcement.

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