BT Group is planning to slash up to 55,000 jobs in the next five to seven years as it makes greater use of technology to cut costs and simplify its business.The layoffs, comprising 42 percent of BT's workforce, come two days after UK mobile phone giant Vodafone unveiled plans to cut 11,000 jobs or one tenth of staff over three years.
BT employs 130,000 staff, including contractors. The group will lower this to between 75,000 and 90,000 people over the next five to seven years, it said in a results statement.The grim news follows the axing this year of tens of thousands of jobs across the global tech sector, including by Facebook parent Meta, as soaring inflation saps the world economy.BT is implementing further cutbacks, having slashed costs under a plan launched three years ago."By the end of the 2020s, BT Group will rely on a much smaller workforce and a significantly reduced cost base," said chief executive Philip Jansen.