By Matt Walker
This brief report addresses workforce trends in the telecom industry, with a focus on the telecom network operator (telco) sector. It presents data on telco sector employees over time, company-level trends, and the outlook for the future. At year-end 2022, telcos employed 4.57 million worldwide, down 2.1% YoY and down 7.9% from the pre-COVID level of 4.96 million recorded in 4Q19. Telcos reporting headcount growth are generally pushing into new markets, have ramped up sales staff to pursue short-term opportunities or have acquired another entity recently. Examples in 2022 include Telus (headcount up 17.7K in 2022), Charter Communications (headcount up 8K in 2022), and NTT (headcount up 5.9K YoY in 2022). By contrast, telcos with headcount declines are simply doing what comes naturally: implementing technology and process innovations to allow them to do more with less, and profit despite limited topline growth opportunities. MTN Consulting expects the telecom industry to continue to downsize on the operator side, aiming towards approximately 4.1 million employees by 2027.
- Table Of Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Coverage
- Visuals
Table Of Contents
- Summary – page 2
- Telcos aim to do more with less even as they seek out new revenue streams – page 2
- Labor costs – page 4
- Outlook for the telco workforce – page 5
- Appendix – page 6
Figures and Tables
Figure 1: Employees (M) and Revenue/Employee (US$K), annualized
Figure 2: Biggest gains or losses in employment at individual telcos, 4Q22 vs. 4Q19
Figure 3: Biggest gains or losses in employment at individual telcos, 4Q22 vs. 4Q21
Figure 4: Labor costs per employee ($K) in a fixed exchange rate scenario*
Coverage
Companies mentioned:
Airtel
Altice USA
America Movil
AT&T
BCE
BSNL
BT
CenturyLink (Lumen)
Charter Communications
China Mobile
China Unicom
Cogeco
Comcast
Grupo Televisa
Iliad SA
KDDI
LG Uplus
Megafon
MTNL
NTT
Oi
PCCW
Rakuten
Reliance Jio
SK Telecom
TDS
Telecom Italia
Telefonica
Telenor
Telstra
Telus
TPG Telecom
Turk Telekom
Veon
Verizon
Visuals
