Laid off from Lumen.

Previous rounds

Lumen layoff history

Lumen has been shrinking for years, and its own annual reports keep the count. The company put its global headcount at about 29,000 for the end of 2022, about 28,000 a year later, about 25,000 for the end of 2024, and about 24,000 for the end of 2025. That's roughly 5,000 fewer people across three years, a little under a fifth of where it started, and layoffs are only part of that difference. The name moved during the same stretch. The Lumen brand launched on September 14, 2020, at a point when SEC filings still described Lumen Technologies LLC as a wholly owned affiliate of CenturyLink Inc, and the Louisiana corporation underneath it has been buying its way to this size since 1968, taking in Embarq in 2009, Qwest in 2011, and Level 3 in 2017.

The rounds behind that line are documented unevenly. In the fourth quarter of 2023 the company reduced its global workforce by about 4 percent and booked severance and related costs of about $53 million, the round the Ouachita Citizen in Monroe reported as roughly 1,200 jobs. In April 2024 it cut about 6 percent more, taking severance and related costs of about $103 million during that quarter. The same stretch included asset sales. Lumen divested its Latin American business and part of its incumbent local exchange business across about 20 states in 2022, and its Europe, Middle East and Africa business in 2023. How many people moved out with those businesses rather than being cut isn't something the filings break out.

After 2024 the filings stop attaching a headcount to any individual reduction, though they keep reporting total employment at each year end. What continues is the spending. Lumen accrued $64 million of severance expense during 2025 and carried a $34 million severance liability into 2026. In early July 2026 about 90 people in the Global Partner Solutions team were told their roles were ending, most on July 1, with departures set for July 10. Channel Dive called that the second workforce reduction of the year and quoted the company saying it was "making difficult but necessary changes to align our workforce to business needs and strategic priorities." SDxCentral reported that the earlier 2026 round surfaced in the first quarter earnings filing as severance payments with no headcount attached.

Ten all-time WARN filings for this employer sit in our tracker, none since the start of 2025. Nothing landed in 2026 either. Covering the July round specifically, Channel Dive reported that Lumen had filed no WARN notices and read that as its cuts staying under 50 people in any one state. That reading belongs to that round, and nothing on record extends it to the others. What the gap means in practice is that the recent history of this employer sits in trade coverage and in a severance line in a quarterly filing rather than in the WARN filings we track, so the public paper trail behind a recent departure here may be thinner than a state notice would have left.

If you're on the list, establish first which set of rules covers you. About a fifth of Lumen's U.S. workforce was represented by the Communications Workers of America or the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers at the end of 2025, and where a contract applies, its bargained provisions govern the terms and the sequence. Outside a covered contract, the separation agreement you're handed is the one that governs, and no published Lumen severance formula exists on record to measure it against. Ask in writing, straight away, exactly what deadline applies to your offer, and check that answer against the agreement itself, because the clock may already be running. If your job sat in the eleven states whose mass-market fiber business went to AT&T on February 2, 2026, check whether your paperwork names Lumen or the buyer before you file anything.

Reporting on previous Lumen layoff rounds

• 2026, July · About 90 roles in the Global Partner Solutions team, most told on July 1 with departures on July 10, reported as the second reduction of the year

• 2024, April · About 6 percent of the workforce, which the company priced at severance and related costs of about $103 million

• 2023, fourth quarter · About 4 percent of the global workforce at severance and related costs of about $53 million, reported as roughly 1,200 jobs

• 2022 through 2025 · Cumulative, not a single event. About 29,000 employees at the end of 2022 down to about 24,000 at the end of 2025, across layoff rounds, divestitures, and attrition together, with no published split between them

How Lumen's layoffs compare to other companies

The nearest comparison here is a literal one. On February 2, 2026 Lumen closed the sale of its mass-market fiber business across eleven states to AT&T for $5.75 billion, so work that used to sit inside this company now sits inside a competitor. What stayed is enterprise and wholesale under the Lumen name, plus the copper service still branded CenturyLink.

What to do after being laid off from Lumen

1. File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Lumen's biggest hubs: Louisiana, Colorado, Washington, Utah. 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 Lumen's hub states run: Louisiana, Colorado, Washington, Utah, 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.