Verizon lays off 336 N.J. Workers Because of Dropoff in Copper Line Customers

Still cleaning out the mass layoffs backlog. This one from last week was reported by New Jersey.com:

Verizon will lay off 336 New Jersey workers from jobs maintaining traditional copper wire networks because of dwindling demand for landline phones, the company said today.

"A little more than 10 years ago, Verizon served between 6.7 to 6.8 million phone lines in New Jersey," said Verizon spokesman Lee Gierczynski in an interview. "Today, the company serves 2.5 million phone lines, so the business has seen a dramatic drop...this is how the telecommunications industry has evolved in the last 10 years."

The workers, based in Boonton, Plainfield, Freehold, Ewing and Egg Harbor, will be cut from the payroll in the next 21 to 60 days. After the move only 20 employees will remain in the Verizon Connected Solutions unit, which worked on the company’s copper line network, Gierczynski said.

Not really a whole lot you can say about this one except that it would suck to be a copper line telecommunications specialist in today's wireless world.


Bonus: From a once ultra hip band, this song is now a throwback to another place and time