Comcast is moving forward with a significant workforce shift as it continues to face mounting customer losses in its Xfinity broadband and cable TV businesses.
The media giant revealed in its latest earnings report that it lost 144,000 U.S. broadband customers and 274,000 U.S. cable TV customers in the third quarter of this year. Meanwhile, its domestic broadband revenue declined 4.7% year over year, while cable TV revenue dropped 8.7%.
After an Oct. 21 Bloomberg report revealed that Comcast was planning “a significant number of job cuts” in its broadband, cable TV and wireless businesses, Comcast President Mike Cavanagh addressed upcoming operational changes on an earnings call a day later.
“The competitive environment demands that we execute at a higher level, move faster, and operate more efficiently,” said Cavanagh. “…We’re taking decisive steps to change how we operate, structurally improve our cost base, and create greater capacity to invest in growth.”
Comcast moves ahead with layoffs
Amid this shift, Comcast has begun conducting layoffs in several states, impacting hundreds of employees.
Comcast said that starting on Dec. 31, it will be laying off 159 employees at several regional offices in Washington state, according to a WARN notice it filed with the state Employment Security Department on Oct. 29.
“Comcast is fundamentally redesigning our organization to build a more agile company and better serve our customers,” wrote the company in the WARN notice. “These changes will help us accelerate innovation and compete more effectively in a rapidly changing industry.”
It also said that it will be “posting more than 1,100 new positions across the company,” and will be working with each of its affected employees to “consider them for these and any other open positions.”
Read more: Comcast makes significant shift as customer losses mount
In another WARN notice recently submitted to the Pennsylvania labor department, Comcast said it will lay off 634 employees at its Comcast Technology Center in Philadelphia, beginning Dec. 31.
According to a recent report from Philly Voice, Comcast is allowing affected employees in Philadelphia to remain in their eliminated positions until Dec. 31, 2027, in some cases. Also, the company said it will try to place impacted Philadelphia employees in open positions or one of the roughly 500 new roles it plans to add at two of its corporate towers in the city.
Comcast has also recently filed a WARN notice with the New Jersey labor department, revealing that it will cut 119 jobs at several locations in New Jersey, with the change taking effect on Jan. 27, 2027.
Additionally, the media giant is reportedly laying off 82 employees in California, according to a recent report from The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Comcast layoffs reflect wider telecom workforce shift
The layoffs from Comcast come after Jason Armstrong, its chief financial officer, said on the Oct. 22 earnings call that the company expects to record a charge of more than $1 billion in the fourth quarter of this year tied to its cost-cutting and operational transformation actions.
As Comcast reshapes its workforce, it will also be increasing its use of artificial intelligence.
“We’re bringing in new technology leadership to increase the pace of innovation,” said Armstrong. “AI is already embedded across our network to optimize performance, and we’re expanding its application across customer experience through partnerships with Sierra and Cresta.”
Comcast’s job cuts also come as it prepares for a major leadership transition. Michael Angelakis is set to take over as CEO of the company’s remaining broadband, cable TV, and wireless businesses following the planned 2027 spinoff of NBCUniversal and Sky.
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Comcast isn’t the only telecom company that has conducted layoffs this year. Spectrum, for instance, laid off 313 employees in March after shutting down a call center facility in Wisconsin. It later laid off an additional 107 employees in September after discontinuing the operation of its network operations center in Missouri.
T-Mobile has also recently been making cuts to its workforce. Deutsche Telekom, which owns T-Mobile, revealed in its second-quarter 2026 earnings report that the carrier had 70,036 U.S. employees on Dec. 31, 2025, and that number dropped to 65,365 by June 30, “primarily due to the impact of the 2025-2026 Workforce Transformation.”
Meanwhile, Verizon cut hundreds of jobs nationwide in May, and laid off over 3,000 workers in August. In June, AT&T reportedly conducted layoffs across multiple departments.
According to recent data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, 573,195 layoffs have been announced in the U.S. between January and September 2026, with the telecom industry announcing 7,446 layoffs in this period.
Matt Walker, chief analyst at MTN Consulting, revealed in a recent analysis that global telecom workforce headcount has been shrinking due to “layoffs, retirement, and attrition” for years.
He also said that “the workforce profile” in the telecom industry keeps evolving, “with demand shifting toward software, cloud, AI, and quantum-computing skills.”
“Global telco headcount fell 2.1% year over year in 2Q26 (the second quarter of 2026),” said Walker. “That is not new – it has fallen every quarter since 2019, and this is in line with the historic decline. What changed is the reason: operators are now citing AI and automation deployments directly when they explain the cuts, not just cost discipline.”
Related: Spectrum faces new customer problem after Cox acquisition
