BT sheds 7,731 jobs as profit climbs and shares hit five-year high

BT has axed 7,731 jobs since the end of March, leaving its workforce at 90,000, excluding staff in the international unit being spun out into a joint venture with Verizon. Two years ago the group counted about 130,000 people, contractors included. Most of the losses landed at Openreach, where the fibre buildout is slowing, alongside a wider push to strip out billions in costs by the end of the decade.

The belt-tightening is showing up on the bottom line. Pre-tax profit climbed by 12%, reaching £1.1bn for the six months to the end of September. BT shares, listed in London, leapt by as much as 6% in early Thursday trading, touching a five-year high and landing the telecoms giant among the FTSE 100's strongest movers.

Chief executive Allison Kirkby, who took the top job in February 2024, has been swinging the axe across the business. She has raised BT's savings target from £3bn by 2029 to £3.7bn by 2030. Headcount is now expected to finish the decade between 75,000 and 80,000, sitting at the bottom of the 75,000-to-90,000 range floated in 2023, when BT warned AI could erase the equivalent of roughly 10,000 roles.

Kirkby's pay and bonus more than doubled last year, hitting £5.6m — the biggest award handed to a BT boss in over a decade. Shares are up more than 70% since she stepped in. She has also steered the £400m takeover of struggling rival TalkTalk, but told reporters on Thursday she could not share plans for the business while regulators review the deal.

TalkTalk, headquartered in Salford, employs about 900 people, and the rescue kept telecoms running for 2.5m households along with public service customers such as hospitals and schools. Virgin Media O2, which had also weighed a bid for TalkTalk, reacted furiously at the time, branding the deal a “stitch-up” that would hand BT even more dominance. VMO2 said earlier this week that it plans to cut thousands of jobs in an £800m cost-savings drive of its own.

BT holds about 30% of the UK broadband market, according to Enders Analysis estimates, and its Openreach network is TalkTalk's biggest supplier. The company told investors on Thursday that demand for Openreach's full-fibre network is at a record, with 24.1m homes passed so far and a 25m target by the end of the year.