RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Communications giants AT&T and Verizon have cut thousands of jobs over the past four years with many layoffs coming at AT&T in in recent months, according to new reports.

Tech news site LightReading reports that AT&T cut “nearly 9,000 jobs” between June and September as part of a plan to cut nearly $6 billion.

“It signifies the most aggressive round of layoffs at AT&T since it completed its questionable $85 billion takeover of Time Warner more than two years ago,” LightReading reports.

The Dallas Business Journal reported similar numbers.

“The Dallas telecommunications and media company shrunk the number of employees by 8,720 in the third quarter to less than 235,000, according to information on its investor relations website. The cuts represented a reduction of about 3.6 percent of the company total workforce,” the newspaper reported.

Overall, AT&T amd Time Warner (now WarnerMedia) have reduced headcount by nearly 50,000 since 2015 and their merger two years ago.

“Together, the two separate companies employed some 281,450 people in 2015, according to a database of employment statistics maintained by Light Reading. Including what is today branded WarnerMedia, AT&T now employs 234,630,” LightReading’s IaIn Morris reports.

But AT&T is not alone.

“Big rival Verizon has been on a similarly drastic diet, cutting nearly 43,000 jobs since 2015 … according to Light Reading’s data,” Morris adds.

Other communications providers also are cutting jobs, Morris notes.

Read the full LightReading report online.