Verizon Says It Will Eliminate 10,000 Jobs in ’01

Verizon Communications Inc. said it expects to cut the equivalent of 10,000 jobs this year, mostly by not filling vacancies and cutting overtime and the use of contractors. But some layoffs are possible at the nation’s largest local phone company.

The reduction in Verizon’s core phone operations is part of an ongoing effort to cut positions duplicated by last year’s purchase of GTE and meet the cost-savings goals made possible by that merger, a spokesman said Wednesday.

“We expect to cut a great deal of the positions through retirements and normal attrition. When you’ve got 260,000 people, you have people come and go,” spokesman Eric Rabe said Wednesday at Verizon’s annual meeting with analysts in New York.

Verizon reaffirmed its financial growth goals for 2001 and said it expects continued strong growth in its emerging long-distance and high-speed Internet businesses.

Shares of Verizon, which was created by last year’s merger of Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp., fell $1.45 Wednesday to $52.95 on the New York Stock Exchange.