UK's BT Group announces to cut 55,000 jobs by 2023

Just two days after the telecom giant Vodafone announced that it was intending to cut 11,000 jobs, another British broadband and mobile provider BT Group said Thursday that it is cutting 55,000 jobs by 2030 — comprising more than 40% of its staff.

There are a total of 130,000 employees in BT including those working under contract. The group will lower this to between 75,000 and 90,000 people over the next five to seven years, it said in a results statement.

The news comes as the global tech giants have been axing thousands of jobs including Meta and Amazon citing the inflationary and other economic pressures.

BT is implementing further cutbacks, having slashed costs under a plan launched three years ago.

CEO of BT Group Philip Jansen said: "By the end of the 2020s, BT Group will rely on a much smaller workforce and a significantly reduced cost base," adding that "the company was navigating an extraordinary macro-economic backdrop."

The slimmed-down group "will be a leaner business with a brighter future" and will "digitise the way we work and simplify our structure".

The largest broadband in the UK said that once its full-fibre broadband and 5G network were rolled out, it would not need as many staff to build and maintain it.

The firm also revealed Thursday that net profit soared 50% to $2.4 billion in its fiscal year to March, but the performance was skewed by a one-off tax credit.

However, the company noted that the pre-tax profit decreased 12% to £1.7 billion from a year earlier, while revenue dipped 1% to £20.7 billion.

After the news became public, the shareholders began to offload their holdings which led to the

BT’s share price lose almost 9% to 134.80 pence in morning deals on the rising London stock market.

Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Matt Britzman, noted: "Headlines will no doubt focus on the job cuts."

"It's drastic, but it's not overly surprising given the mounting costs and slim margins in the wider business."