Thousands of jobs have been cut across the telecoms industry in recent months, with operators and vendors looking to reduce costs and restructure their businesses.
Companies including Telia, Nokia, Telefónica, Vodafone and T-Mobile US have all announced job cuts, with some planning further reductions as they look to improve efficiency and remain competitive.
Telia – 900 jobs
This week, Telia announced plans to cut around 900 jobs across its operations by 31 December, affecting approximately 6.4% of its workforce.
As of 1 October, the company employed around 14,100 people, including 6,000 in Sweden, 2,450 in Finland, 2,350 in Lithuania, 1,800 in Norway, 1,400 in Estonia and 100 in other countries.
The planned cuts will affect all five main markets, with Finland and Sweden seeing the largest reductions at 280 and 260 positions, respectively. Norway will lose around 150 positions, followed by Lithuania with 110 and Estonia with 100.
Telia President and CEO, Patrik Hofbauer, said: “We’re building the future Telia. Our efforts so far have put us on the right track, and further localisation means doubling down on what we know gets results.
“We must always become even simpler, faster and more efficient in everything we do. We want to empower our countries more, get the utmost from our common Technology unit and other Group Functions, and sharpen Telia’s edge in a very competitive market. Crucially, we want to continue investing in great products and experiences for our customers.
“We are committed to constant improvement, and this proposed next step is made from a position of strength. We recognise it will involve difficult decisions and will require support for all our people. We believe that Telia can perform even better, and we see an opportunity to become a leading European telco.”
Nokia – 253 jobs
Last week, it was reported the telecom giant has plans to cut 253 jobs in Finland, affecting employees at its Espoo headquarters and sites in Tampere and Oulu.
The proposed reductions follow an earlier announcement of 121 job cuts in Finland this year.
In a memo sent to employees, and seen by Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, Nokia Country Manager of Finland, Mikko Hautala, said: “In Finland, our intention is to continue to invest in strategically important areas, including, the defence sector and the opportunities brought by artificial intelligence and data centres.
“The changes we are planning are not easy, and they will not be implemented lightly. However, they are necessary to secure our competitiveness in a rapidly changing operating environment.
“We are doing our best to ensure that the changes are implemented responsibly and that the employees affected by the changes receive the necessary information about the progress of the negotiation process, the available options and support measures.”
Telefonica – 1,100 jobs
This summer, Telefónica announced plans to cut 1,100 jobs at its German subsidiary O2 as part of a wider restructuring effort aimed at reducing costs and improving competitiveness.
At the time, the company had already begun offering voluntary redundancy packages and other incentives to encourage staff to leave.
Additionally, the telecoms giant also announced plans to close 60 of its roughly 800 stores by the end of the year, reducing its store footprint by around 8%.
At the time, Santiago Argelich Hesse, CEO of Telefónica Deutschland, said: “We want to further establish Telefónica Deutschland as the leading provider of digital infrastructure and services for people and businesses in this country. To this end, we are realigning our team and our processes.
“We are simplifying the organisation, consolidating activities and intensifying the use of artificial intelligence in key processes. In this way, we are safeguarding Telefónica’s competitiveness and future viability. We want to be the best gateway to digital technologies for citizens, businesses and institutions.”
Vodafone- 1,200 jobs
In the same month as Telefonica, Vodafone also confirmed that it had cut 1,200 jobs across its European operations as part of its ongoing efforts to reduce costs.
“We have made good early progress against our new medium-term efficiency and synergy targets. In the UK, we have started to see the first impact of the integration synergies and more broadly, across Europe and shared operations, our initiatives have delivered over 1,200 new role reductions in the quarter,” the company said at the time, but did not provide any further details on the job cuts.
T-Mobile USA- 4,500 jobs
In August, T-Mobile US revealed 4,500 jobs were cut in the first half of the year as part of a wider restructuring effort.
The figures were disclosed by its parent company, Deutsche Telekom (DT), in a report filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The filing showed that T-Mobile US had reduced its workforce by 4,671 positions, which the company attributed to “the impact of the 2025-2026 workforce transformation.”
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