It could be early September before CenturyLink pinpoints where exactly 1,000 layoffs within the company will occur, the telecommunications giant tells The News-Star in Monroe today.
The Monroe-based company—which is the largest public firm headquartered in Louisiana—confirmed on Friday to The News-Star that chief executive and President Glen Post announced the layoffs to employees during a “town hall” simulcast last week.
“It will likely be two to three weeks before we have exact numbers and locations,” CenturyLink’s Annmarie Sartor tells the newspaper.
The company says the cuts will come throughout CenturyLink’s operations. CenturyLink employs about 44,000 workers globally. Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Steven Grissom says he has been in contact with the firm since the planned layoffs became public.
“We continue to communicate with CenturyLink officials to better understand how the recently announced workforce reduction might impact employment in Louisiana,” Grissom says in an email to The News-Star. “The company has indicated to LED that it is continuing to assess the distribution of the reductions across the company’s footprint, based on the needs of each of its business operating units. Our current understanding is that after this process is completed, CenturyLink should be in a position to communicate state-level impacts, including any potential Louisiana impacts, as soon as next month. At this point, we have received no information indicating that the downsizing will create an impact regarding CenturyLink’s progress toward its jobs and payroll commitments under its agreements with LED.”
The state committed about $20 million in incentives to CenturyLink in 2011 as part of the company’s plan to create 800 new jobs in Monroe by 2016 and keep its corporate headquarters in Louisiana. CenturyLink opened its new Technology Center of Excellence earlier this year adjacent to its headquarters as part of the expansion.
CenturyLink employs about 2,700 workers in Louisiana; about 2,500 of those are located at the corporate headquarters. The company has an annual Louisiana payroll of about $150 million.
