AT&T; to eliminate 12,000 positions

AT&T; Inc. joined the recession’s parade of layoffs Thursday by announcing plans to cut 12,000 jobs, or about 4% of its workforce.

The nation’s largest telecommunications company said the job cuts would take place this month and in 2009. The Dallas-based company also plans to reduce capital spending next year.

The layoffs will be “across the company and across the country,” said spokesman Walt Sharp, who would not specify what departments and cities would be most affected. The layoffs are in addition to the 4,600 jobs the company in April said it would eliminate.

The new cuts come as AT&T; finds itself grappling with two challenges. One is the recession, which is leading businesses and consumers to curtail spending; the other is a long-term trend in the telecom industry.

AT&T;, which provides local phone coverage in California, Texas and 20 other states, has been seeing many customers defect from land-line phones to wireless services. In the last quarter, AT&T; basic voice lines in service dropped 11%.

Reflecting that shift, AT&T; noted Thursday that even though job cuts were coming, it would still be hiring in parts of the business that offer cellphone service and broadband Internet access.

The job cuts at AT&T; come as the Labor Department prepares to report on the November unemployment rate today. Economists expect unemployment to jump to a 15-year high of 6.8%, up from 6.5% in October.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that new claims for jobless benefits fell unexpectedly last week but that the number of people continuing to receive aid reached a 26-year high.

The Labor Department also reported that initial claims for unemployment dropped to a seasonally adjusted 509,000, from an upwardly revised figure of 530,000 for the previous week.

Still, the number of people continuing to claim unemployment benefits last week reached 4.09 million, the highest level since December 1982, when the economy was emerging from a recession.