Narayan AmmachchiBack in 2017, US telecom and cable operator Charter Communications pledged it would shut down its call centers overseas and bring those jobs back to American soil. Seven years later, the company is cutting jobs left and right.
Charter Communications laid off more than 1,000 of its workers in the US over the past few months, with customer service agents being the most affected. The company has yet to explain the reasoning behind those layoffs, but market analysts point to cost reductions in an increasingly saturated market.
The latest round of firings occured in June. Charter cut off 452 jobs and shut down its customer service center in Ontario, California.
Following its US$55 billion merger with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks in 2017, Charter pledged to reshore jobs back to the US by hiring 20,000 Americans. In recent months, however, the company has been firing staff in several of its US locations, including Rochester (Minnesota), Grand Rapids (Michigan) and Columbus (Ohio).
Charter lost 72,000 internet customers and 405,000 video customers in the first quarter of this year, a sign of the challenges faced by the company today.
Other cable operatos have been in a firing spree of their own. Cable One announced last week that it would cut 120 jobs, or 4% of its total workforce.
Charter assured that fired workers would get a chance to apply for open positions within the company. Those who can’t jump back into Charter will receive financial compensation.
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