The Layoff Club

Laid off from AT&T.

AT&T has been shrinking for years without one big announcement, about 8,000 fewer people in 2025 alone, plus a relocate-or-leave mandate that moved the decision onto employees. The mechanism is the story.

At a glance

What's known about AT&T severance and layoffs

  • About 43% of employees · Union representation
  • About 133,030 · Year-end 2025 workforce
  • About 8,000 roles reported · 2025 headcount reduction
  • Not published · Management severance formula
  • 104 weeks, 40 for hires from April 12, 2026 · Legacy T union termination pay
  • 8 covering 567 jobs · Filings since 2025 in our tracker
  • 138 jobs, Cumberland County, New Jersey · Newest filing on record

Recent AT&T layoffs

AT&T's newest filing lists 138 Cumberland County jobs in New Jersey

AT&T announced 138 layoffs based in Cumberland County, New Jersey, effective by mid-September 2026. That's the largest single AT&T filing our tracker holds since the start of 2025, and the third New Jersey filing of 2026, after two Bedminster notices in May covering 87 and 75 jobs.

Previous rounds

AT&T layoff history

Being surplused at AT&T sends you looking for a severance policy, and what you find depends on whether a contract covers your job. About 43 percent of AT&T's employees are represented by the CWA, the IBEW or another union, and for those jobs the layoff and severance terms sit in a bargaining agreement you can read for yourself. For the rest of the company no severance formula is on record, so the terms are whatever the documents you're handed say. Which of those two describes your job decides what you can look up, who can argue on your behalf, and how much of the number in front of you was settled before anyone said your name.

More of the shrinking shows up in the annual report than in announcements. AT&T's own annual report puts the company at about 133,030 employees at the end of 2025, and Light Reading counted roughly 8,000 fewer people across that year, with year-end headcount landing near 133,000. The same tally put AT&T and Verizon together at 17,700 for the year, Verizon's 9,700 arriving as one headline. AT&T's is an annual total rather than a single event, and the filings and the contracts are where individual reductions carry their dates and their terms.

On the union side those documents got more specific across the last two bargaining rounds. CWA Local 1400 publishes the 2026 to 2029 AT&T Communications agreement as carrying a letter under which the company suspends initiating or executing any involuntary layoffs in that bargaining unit for the life of the contract, alongside a commitment to post 200 unit jobs and to fill postings at consolidated locations from the unit first. That same agreement kept a 104-week termination pay schedule for employees already on the payroll and set a 40-week schedule for anyone hired on or after 12 April 2026. In the Southwest, CWA District 6 recorded the 2025 agreement adding 3 percent to voluntary and involuntary severance, adding two more weeks for Appendix J employees whose severance had been capped at six, and running four years through 14 April 2029.

Outside a bargaining unit there's no published formula to check yours against, which makes the paperwork in front of you the whole of what you know. What AT&T does publish is its bargaining. The company said in May 2026 that Mobility Orange employees ratified a four-year agreement covering about 9,000 people in retail, call center and customer service roles across 36 states, carrying a $1,000 ratification bonus, general wage increases totaling 14.75 percent and job security commitments, and it called that the fourth ratified agreement of the year. Further back, from January 2025 it required US employees in the office five days a week at hub locations including Atlanta, Dallas and St. Louis, telling Tech.co that most of its employees and leaders had never stopped working on location anyway.

Two things sit next to each other on the record, and the record doesn't join them. On the April 2026 earnings call, chief financial officer Pascal Desroches said AT&T was working toward a target of $4 billion in annual cost savings by the end of 2028, and named force optimization first among the initiatives behind it. Separately, CWA told the FCC that AT&T plans to retire the large majority of its copper network by 2029, in a proposal the union described as covering 250,000 square miles across 18 states. Whether that copper work comes back as union fiber work is being settled in bargaining and at the FCC, which is why District 6 wanted fiber buildout named in the contract.

Our tracker holds 129 all-time filings under AT&T's name. Since the start of 2025 it holds 8 filings covering 567 jobs across 4 states, and three of them, covering 300 jobs, landed in New Jersey during 2026, 87 at Bedminster in May, 75 more there later the same month, and 138 in Cumberland County effective in September. The Bedminster pair carries a caution specific to it, because NJ.com reported the 87-job filing as arriving while AT&T moved from 1 AT&T Way to a new Bedminster site. No reporting on record divides those 87 jobs between people who moved and people whose jobs ended. The notices themselves sit by state in our WARN filings tracker. Read the date on yours against the date on your packet, and the job title printed on it against the agreement that covers your title.

Reporting on previous AT&T layoff rounds

How AT&T's layoffs compare to other companies

AT&T and Verizon cut a combined 17,700 jobs in 2025. Verizon's came as one headline. AT&T's came as a drumbeat, spread across the year.

What to do after being laid off from AT&T

  1. File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. AT&T's biggest hubs: Texas, Georgia, Missouri, New Jersey. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
  2. Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what AT&T's hub states run: Texas, Georgia, Missouri, New Jersey, and every other state is here.
  3. Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
  4. Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
  5. Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.

AT&T layoff and severance questions

What severance does AT&T pay?

It depends on whether a union contract covers your job. AT&T hasn't put a management severance formula on record, so for a management job the terms are the ones written in the documents you're handed. On the union side the numbers are written down. CWA Local 1400 publishes the AT&T Communications agreement as keeping 104 weeks of termination pay for employees already on the payroll and setting 40 weeks for anyone hired on or after 12 April 2026, and CWA District 6 recorded the 2025 Southwest agreement adding 3 percent to voluntary and involuntary severance. Your contract and your local are the authorities on which schedule reaches you.

Is AT&T doing layoffs?

Yes, and the record holds them in two forms. Light Reading counted about 8,000 fewer AT&T employees across 2025, and the company's own annual report puts year-end headcount at about 133,030. Our tracker holds 8 filings covering 567 jobs across 4 states since the start of 2025, three of them in New Jersey during 2026.

Does my CWA contract protect me from an AT&T layoff?

One agreement on record does exactly that, for its own unit. CWA Local 1400 publishes the 2026 to 2029 AT&T Communications contract as carrying a letter under which the company suspends initiating or executing any involuntary layoffs affecting employees in that bargaining unit for the life of the agreement, alongside a commitment to post 200 unit jobs. That language covers that unit and no other, and only while the contract runs, so the agreement covering your own title is the one to read.

What's AT&T's copper retirement got to do with my job?

AT&T is retiring the large majority of its copper network, in a plan CWA told the FCC would cover 250,000 square miles across 18 states by 2029. For technicians the live question has been whether that work returns as union fiber work, and CWA District 6 bargained a memorandum bringing traditional fiber buildout, installation and maintenance under the Southwest contract-work article. Nothing in the reporting we track ties the copper plan to any particular filing.

Why did AT&T file a WARN notice in New Jersey?

Three times in 2026, for 300 jobs in total. Two of those notices covered Bedminster, 87 jobs in May and 75 later the same month, and NJ.com reported the 87-job filing as arriving while AT&T moved from 1 AT&T Way to a new Bedminster site. No reporting on record divides those 87 jobs between people who moved and people whose jobs ended. The third notice listed 138 jobs in Cumberland County effective in September.

Where do I file for unemployment after being laid off from AT&T?

In the state where you worked, not where the company is headquartered. AT&T's biggest U.S. hubs are Texas, Georgia, Missouri, New Jersey. Severance usually doesn't block you from filing, and benefits run from your filing date, so file the same week.

Is it OK to file for unemployment after a layoff at AT&T?

Yes. Unemployment insurance is funded by payroll taxes employers pay on wages, the claim never appears on credit reports or background checks, and future employers cannot see it. If the hesitation itself is the obstacle, whether filing is OK has its own article.

What happens to my health insurance after a layoff at AT&T?

Your plan sets the end date rather than the law, so the separation packet is where that date actually lives, and it is often the last day of the month rather than your last day of work. After coverage ends, COBRA lets you keep the identical plan by paying the whole premium yourself, up to 102 percent of what the plan really costs, which lands as several times the payroll deduction you were used to. You get 60 days to elect, counted from the later of coverage ending or the election notice arriving, and electing reaches the coverage back to the day the old plan stopped so no gap exists. How continuation coverage works walks the timing, and whether to take it rather than a marketplace plan is a separate decision.

Should I sign the severance agreement right away?

First pin down how much review time you actually have. If you're 40 or older, federal law gives you 21 days to consider an agreement that waives age claims, 45 in a group layoff, and a waiver signed under a shorter deadline can be invalid. If you're under 40, no federal window applies and the deadline in your packet may be real, so confirm it in writing and ask for more time if you need it. Use whatever window you have to read the release terms, especially non-disparagement and no-lawsuit clauses, and don't stall past a real deadline, because offers can be withdrawn.

Can I collect unemployment if I got severance from AT&T?

Usually yes, though some states delay benefits until severance pay periods end, and lump sums are treated differently than salary continuation. Check your state's rules on our state benefit pages, and file immediately either way so your claim date is locked in.