Telco Talent Tracker, 3Q25 - Workforce Continues Falling at Roughly 2% Per Year, Now 4.34 million: Average Telco Salary Rises, Approaching US$60K Per Year, Most Profitable Telcos Invest in Upskilling, Layoffs Not Clearly Linked to Profits

Value proposition

This report analyzes the global telecommunications operator (telco) workforce, offering both a high-level view of industry shifts and granular, company-level data. For telcos, the report enables benchmarking of labor costs and productivity against 72 global peers, which can help optimize workforce transformation and AI integration strategies. For vendors, the report pinpoints telcos with high labor costs or labor-to-opex ratios and stagnant margins, identifying prime targets for solutions that drive operational efficiency and cost reduction. For investors, it clarifies the link (or lack thereof) between headcount and profitability.

Scope

This study monitors global employment dynamics within the telecommunications operator sector. MTN Consulting covers 140 telcos in its research, including 116 active companies. This "talent tracker" report provides a deep dive analysis of 72 key telcos, who represent roughly 85% of the global market. Data coverage spans from 1Q11 through 3Q25.

Introduction: The automation imperative

While global telecom revenues have remained flat, the industry's most successful players are thriving by shifting their focus from unrealistic growth projections to aggressive cost management. Central to this strategy is the adoption of automation, autonomous networks, and, more recently, AI-based technologies. MTN Consulting's Telecom AI & Automation (TAIA) module explores this transition.

The telco workforce is shrinking, and this trend is structural. Factors such as layoffs, voluntary retirement, and natural attrition are eroding total numbers, and the "average" employee profile is evolving. Telcos now prioritize staff adept in software coding, cloud services, AI, and quantum computing. AI in particular has caught on in the telco C-suite. Telcos have been automating around the edges for years, but now many are seeking to position themselves around AI specifically. Verizon, whose new CEO is eagerly cutting heads, said on the company's 4Q25 earnings call that the company's goal is to be the "most efficient telecom company" in the industry, and to do so it is "determined to be an AI-first company, deploying AI at scale."

While many other telco execs use similar language, the reality is that they all have to leverage their existing staff in order to thrive. Training and upskilling are essential tactics. On its recent 4Q25 earnings call, Swisscom's CEO said it is "constantly upskilling...so that we can continue to improve the overall performance of our employee base going forward, as we have really [demanding] work going on with the digital and AI transformation driving a lot of the change going forward." Success today depends on a delicate balance of retraining existing staff and strategic new hiring to meet these digital-first requirements.

The layoff paradox

Big-ticket layoff announcements frequently dominate the headlines. Verizon's late 2025 plan for a 15% workforce reduction remains the most significant recent move. Over the last 12 months, other major cuts were announced by AT&T, BCE, T-Mobile US, and Charter/Cox in the Americas; BT, Telefonica, and Vodafone in Europe; and Telstra in Asia-Pacific.

Operators often frame these cuts as essential for competition and profit. For example, BCE's November 2025 plan to cut 700 staff was presented as a "difficult but necessary decision" to support a C$1.5 billion (US$1.1B) cost-savings goal through 2028. However, our data reveals no direct correlation between headcount reductions and margin surges, even when accounting for a multi-quarter lag.

For many telcos, layoffs serve as a form of "virtue signaling" to reassure Wall Street of their commitment to cost reduction and dividends. The splash made by Verizon's new CEO since he joined in October 2025 is a good example. While drastic cuts can occasionally preserve near-term cash flow, simply reducing headcount is rarely a silver bullet. CxOs who rush to issue pink slips in response to the rise of AI risk creating talent gaps that lead to cybersecurity vulnerabilities, increased churn, or the loss of innovative capacity.

While layoffs aren't clearly linked to profits, workforce training may be. That's a working hypothesis. Consider the top 10 telcos based on their annualized EBIT per employee figures in 3Q25: Du, Batelco, Verizon, Zain KSA, Airtel, MTN Group, Omantel, STC, AT&T, and KPN. Most of these have vigorous training & upskilling programs aimed at evolving their workforce for new requirements. We will explore this further in future research.

Key findings: 3Q25 analysis

The following insights are based on MTN Consulting's quarterly review through September 2025.

Employment & labor costs

• Total headcount: The sector employed 4.344 million people in 3Q25, a 1.8% year-over-year decline (roughly 82,000 positions). This aligns with long-term trends of steady contraction. On a quarter-over-quarter basis, headcount has fallen steadily for years, with only one interruption: after a dramatic dip in 1Q20 when COVID hit, employment levels rose slightly in 2Q20.
• Global labor costs: Annualized labor costs were $260.1 billion in 3Q25. To put this in perspective, this compares to $294.8 billion in capex and $333.0 billion in depreciation opex for the same period.
• Cost efficiency: As a percentage of opex (excluding D&A), labor costs were 21.9% in 3Q25, up slightly from 21.7% in 2Q25 but unchanged versus 3Q24.
• Revenues mapped to costs: Alternatively, global annualized telco revenues in 3Q25 break down as follows: 14.3% to labor costs; 18.4% to depreciation and amortization; 51.2% to all other opex; and 16.1% as operating profit (EBIT). The EBIT portion is the highest since the 3Q14 annualized period, when EBIT/revenues was 16.8%.

Top workforce movers (3Q24-3Q25)

• Biggest 1-year declines: The largest headcount drops between 3Q24 and 3Q25 were at Telefonica (down 10.1K employees), AT&T (-8.0K), BT (-7.9K), Charter Communications (-6.3K), China Mobile (-5.4K), and BCE (-5.2K). These are all big telcos with long-term plans for either workforce reductions or "streamlining." Automation has been a central part of headcount cuts at these and similar companies for many years; AI is only an after-thought. Of these five, BT's CEO has been most explicit about AI's impact, stating that BT's 2023 plan to cut up to 55,000 workers by 2030 may be too conservative, as it does "not reflect the full potential of AI", adding that "depending on what we learn from AI...there may be an opportunity to be even smaller by the end of the decade." However, the rate of workforce reduction has not accelerated in the face of AI; it's been about 2% per year since 2021.
• Biggest 1-year gains: The largest headcount increases between 3Q24 and 3Q25 were at Airtel (+3.8K, 5G rollout hiring), Swisscom (+3.4K, acquisition of Vodafone Italia), KDDI (+3.4K, expansion in data center/AI, energy, fintech), MTS Russia (+3.1K, reorganization of digital/IT units), and America Movil (+3.0K, expanding fiber broadband rollout needs). When headcount growth occurs, the causes are usually acquisition or consolidation, short-term network rollout needs related to 5G or FTTH, and occasionally expansion into new market areas. The last driver is least common in telecom.
• Biggest % changes in employment since 3Q24: These often result from spinoffs, asset sales, and M&A activity. Swisscom, for instance, grew headcount by 17.0% between 3Q24 and 3Q25 due to acquisition of Vodafone Italia. Airtel's 15.3% increase is due to 5G rollout support. AIS increased headcount by 11.7% due to its acquisition of fixed operator Triple T Broadband. The biggest percentage declines were at TDS Telecom (-42.1%, sale of affiliated wireless business to T-Mobile), Liberty Global (-29.8%, Sunrise spinoff), Axiata (-25.9%, portfolio optimization), Spark NZ (-25.2%, mix of layoffs and outsourcing to Nokia), and Africa's MTN Group (-18.2%, restructuring & portfolio optimization).

Profitability & performance

• Labor costs/opex: Telcos spending the most on workforce, measured by labor costs as a percentage of opex (ex-D&A), include: Oi (64%), BSNL (46%), Turk Telekom (44%), Rostelecom (43%), and Telus (42%). Those spending the least include Softbank (6%), Taiwan Mobile (8%), Airtel (9%), True Corp (9%), and TPG Telecom (11%). Companies with low labor costs tend to have high external costs, such as interconnection, roaming, facility leasing, or outsourced sales and marketing to partners or franchises. Those with high labor costs often have complicated histories as incumbent providers, high pension costs, high unionization rates, and may own substantial infrastructure leased to others. Some also conduct their own R&D and design, such as Chunghwa, BT, Orange, and NTT.
• Labor cost per employee: The global average rose to $59.4K in 3Q25, up from $51.2K 6 years prior in 3Q19. This growth is largely driven by rising salaries in emerging markets. For instance, China Telecom's average cost rose from $30K to $49K in that period.
• EBIT per employee: This KPI is on a strong upward trajectory, growing from $49.3K in 3Q19 to $66.9K in 3Q25. On average, telco employees are generating 36% more profit per person than they were six years ago.

The Webscale Crossover

In 1Q11, the telco sector employed nearly four times as many people as the webscale sector. Following years of rapid hyperscale growth and telco consolidation, the two sectors reached parity in 2Q24. As of 3Q25, webscale headcount is now ~3% higher than that of the global telco sector.

Telcos tend to hire lots of people in two groups: network/IT engineers, and sales & customer support staff. Telcos will continue to need people in these areas for many years to come, but the needs are declining. Geographic and scale efficiencies, automation, autonomous networking, and now AI all are allowing the telco workforce to do more with less.

By contrast, webscalers continue to branch out and have more diverse hiring needs. They do hire plenty of software engineers, but that's not all. Some hire lots of logistics and fulfillment staff; some hire retail specialists. All key webscalers spend heavily on R&D, and in a number of different areas: robotics, drones, aerospace, quantum computing, gaming. Nowadays there is high demand in areas like chip and DC infrastructure design, cloud platform development, AI model training, etc. Telcos spend next to nothing on R&D, though, relying instead on their supply chain for innovation.

Coverage:

Global figures are based on quarterly telco tracker, which covers 140 telcos.

Deep dive analysis for the following 72 telcos:

• A1 Telekom Austria
• Advanced Info Service (AIS)
• Airtel
• Altice Europe
• America Movil
• AT&T
• Axiata
• Batelco
• BCE
• Bezeq Israel
• Bouygues Telecom
• BSNL
• BT
• China Mobile
• China Telecom
• China Unicom
• Chunghwa Telecom
• Cyfrowy Polsat
• Deutsche Telekom
• Du
• Entel
• Etisalat
• Globe Telecom
• Grupo Televisa
• Iliad SA
• KDDI
• KPN
• KT
• LG Uplus
• Megafon
• Millicom
• Mobile Telesystems
• MTN Group
• NTT
• Oi
• Omantel
• Ooredoo
• Orange
• PCCW
• PLDT
• Proximus
• Quebecor Telecommunications
• Rogers
• Rostelecom
• Safaricom Limited
• Singtel
• SK Telecom
• SoftBank
• Spark New Zealand Limited
• StarHub
• STC (Saudi Telecom)
• Swisscom
• Taiwan Mobile
• Tata Communications
• Telecom Argentina
• Telecom Egypt
• Telecom Italia
• Telefonica
• Telenor
• Telia
• Telkom Indonesia
• Telkom SA
• Telstra
• Telus
• TPG Telecom Limited
• True Corp
• Turk Telekom
• Turkcell
• Verizon
• Vodafone
• Zain
• Zain KSA