AT&T Corp reduced its estimate of the number of jobs to be cut as part of its restructuring (CI No 2,821) to 34,000 from 40,000 due to plans to rehire some 6,000 workers in new jobs in growth areas. It also said more employees than it originally expected opted to take a voluntary buy-out package: 12,000, against its estimate of around 7,000. It therefore expects 18,000 to be declared redundant, compared with its original estimate of 30,000. Despite the reduction, AT&T does not see significant change in the financial impact of the cuts. AT&T took pre-tax charges of $6,250m last quarter for restructuring costs associated with its plan to split into three companies. And for those employees who will lose their jobs, Ma Bell is setting up a US-wide job bank, revealed an advertisement in major newspapers last week. The ad included a toll-free number for the job bank, and proclaimd that companies have sent in 100,000 leads for jobs in the last two months.
