BT has reduced its workforce by 7,731 since the end of March to about 90,000, not counting its international arm, as it presses on with a large cost-saving drive, The Guardian reports. Most of the reductions came at Openreach, where the fibre roll-out is slowing.
The savings helped push pre-tax profit up 12% to £1.1bn for the six months to September, and the shares rose as much as 6% on Thursday to a five-year high.
Chief executive Allison Kirkby has raised the group's savings target to £3.7bn by 2030, and BT now expects to employ between 75,000 and 80,000 people by the end of the decade. The company said it could not yet give details of plans for TalkTalk, which it agreed to buy for £400m, because the deal is still being reviewed by regulators.
Source: The Guardian
