BT is to axe about 13,000 jobs over the next three years and move out of its central London headquarters after almost 150 years, as it seeks to cut £1.5bn in costs after a torrid 18 months.
The telecoms company said the job losses would come mainly from back office and middle management roles. About two-thirds of the job cuts will fall on its UK workforce of about 80,000, with the remainder coming from the 18,000 staff it employs internationally.
BT is also moving out of its central London headquarters in St Paul’s, where the group has been headquartered since 1874, as part of a wide-ranging restructuring that will ultimately cut £1.5bn in costs.
The group also said it would be hiring about 6,000 new staff, primarily in customer service and engineering.
BT’s standalone subsidiary Openreach, which is responsible for building and managing most of the UK’s broadband infrastructure, has already announced 3,500 of the new jobs. It is looking to hire engineers this year as part of a plan to speed up the rollout of fibre broadband and eliminate “not-spots” in cities and suburban areas.
The job cuts, which amount to about 13% of BT’s total global workforce, means the company will ultimately be cutting about 17,000 jobs over a four-year period. Last May, it cut 4,000 jobs, with about half coming from the UK, to save £300m over two years
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