Englewood, Colorado-based US West Inc says it plans to cut 9,000 jobs during the next three years, including 1,000 that have already been announced, and will take a restructuring charge against third quarter results of $610m after-tax as a result; the Rockies phone company also plans to take a $3,200m after-tax charge against third quarter results due to a change in depreciation accounting, all of which will mean it reports a loss for the quarter and for the full year, although it still expects an operating profit; it says that, acting on the results of an internal study, it will invest in new technology and re-engineer many internal operations, which will involve shifting work from numerous small offices scattered throughout its 14-state region, to 26 new centres to be located in Albuquerque, Boise, the Denver area, Des Moines, the Minneapolis-St Paul area, Omaha, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City and the Seattle area, and it expects to be able to offer its customers faster, more flexible service; the current small offices will be shut over 18 months from mid-1994 as the new centres and processes start up.
