Comcast is laying off 634 employees at its Philadelphia headquarters, as the telecommunications and media giant pursues a cost-cutting transformation and invests in artificial intelligence.
The layoffs are to begin taking effect Dec. 31, according to a notice the company filed with Pennsylvania regulators. The company has started notifying affected employees.
Workers described a tense atmosphere at the company’s two-building Center City headquarters, with one describing seeing people “crying in the halls or the bathrooms.”
Several Comcast employees spoke with The Inquirer but requested anonymity so as not to endanger their severance or jeopardize future employment.
“We are deeply grateful to the colleagues whose roles are affected and for the contributions they have made to Comcast,” said a company statement shared by spokesperson John Demming on Friday. “Philadelphia is our home. It’s where our company was founded and built, and it remains central to who we are and our future.”
The company is also planning to hire for more than 1,100 new positions as part of the restructuring, including more than 500 in Philadelphia, according to the layoff notice.
“Comcast is fundamentally redesigning our organization to build a more agile company and better serve our customers,” the company statement said. “These changes will help us accelerate innovation and compete more effectively in a rapidly changing industry.”
Dozens of Comcast employees have posted about the job losses this week on LinkedIn as they seek to tap their networks for new opportunities. Among the affected workers are engineers, product managers, executive assistants, social media analysts, construction specialists, business analysts, and information technology leaders.
“As a millennial, I’m starting to think ‘unprecedented times’ are actually just … times,” wrote one worker who said her position had been eliminated after more than eight years at the company.
Comcast employs 179,000 full-time and part-time workers across several countries, including 15,000 in the Philadelphia area.
The job losses at one of Philadelphia’s largest employers come a week after company executives said on an earnings call that they are “fundamentally redesigning our organization” to “move faster, improve execution, and operate more efficiently.”
Executives said they plan to accomplish that in part by deploying AI agents to connect with customers.
This is a developing story and will be updated.