AT&T to cut workforce in Slovakia as COVID-19 continues to weigh on demand

In an announcement on Monday, AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) expressed plans of slashing its workforce in Slovakia in a bid to cushion the economic blow from the Coronavirus pandemic that it said was keeping demand under pressure. The COVID-19 crisis has so far infected more than 95 million people worldwide and caused over 2 million deaths.

The news comes months after the American multinational conglomerate said that its revenue tanked 5% in the fiscal third quarter. AT&T had also warned of a Coronavirus-driven hit to its fourth-quarter revenue in October.

AT&T shares, that you can learn to buy online here, are currently trading at £21.50 after recovering from a low £19.53 in the last week of October after posting its Q3 financial results. The stock had touched a high of £23.19 per share in early December but lost momentum again in the consequent weeks.

AT&T has a total of around 2,800 workers in Slovakia

The move, as per the unions, will affect 10% of the company’s Slovakian workforce. It has been over a decade that AT&T Global Network Services has been offering network engineering, customer support, and other services in Slovakia.  

The Dallas-headquartered company has a total of around 2,800 workers in Slovakia. Unemployment in the Central European country that has a population of 5.5 million has jumped from 5.2% to 7.4% in recent months due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic that pushed businesses into laying off workers to cut costs.

According to the company spokesman, the layoff isn’t attributed entirely to the impact of the COVID-19 crisis but also aligns with the company’s growth plans.

“These actions align with our focus on growth areas along with lower customer demand for some legacy products and the economic impact and changed customer behaviours resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

AT&T wants to raise £10.32 billion to buy 5G spectrum

Chairman Martin Horkavy of uniJA (trade union) expects roughly 300 workers to go out of job as AT&T implements the job cut. The company itself has refrained from divulging the actual number of layoffs so far. A media report last week said that AT&T wanted to raise £10.32 billion to buy 5G spectrum.

AT&T performed fairly downbeat in the stock market last year with an annual decline of more than 25%. At the time of writing, the world’s largest telecom company is valued at £153.21 billion and has a price to earnings ratio of 19.20.