BT to cut 55,000 jobs by end of the decade

BT Group, Britain’s biggest broadband and mobile provider, has announced plans to axe 55,000 jobs by the end of the decade in order to become a leaner business.

Total workers, including employees and contractors employed by third parties on BT’s behalf, will drop to between 75,000 to 90,000 by 2030, from about 130,000 currently. This represents a reduction of around 42 per cent.

The announcement came after it met market expectations with a 5 per cent rise in full-year adjusted core earnings of £7.9billion, after growth in networks and consumer offset a decline in enterprise.

Boss Philip Jansen said after completing its fibre roll-out, digitising the way it worked and simplifying its structure, it would rely on a much smaller workforce and significantly reduced cost base by the end of the 2020s.

‘New BT Group will be a leaner business with a brighter future,’ he said.

He said BT had grown both pro forma revenue and core earnings for the first time in six years in the year to end-March, while navigating an ‘extraordinary macro-economic backdrop.’

The group said it expected to grow both revenue and core earnings on a pro forma basis this year.