Projo Biz Blog

Cox Communications said it plans to reduce the number of its employees across the country by about 2 percent.

Some of those job reductions will take place in the company's Rhode Island and Connecticut operations, though the exact number of jobs to be eliminated has not been determined yet, according to Amy Quinn, a spokeswoman for the telecommunications company.

"In today's challenging business environment, many companies are taking steps to make their operations more efficient," Quinn said in an e-mailed statement. "Cox is undertaking this action to enhance our competitiveness while allowing resource investment in new growth opportunities."

Cox employs about 1,500 people in New England. Quinn said that several hundred of those employees work in both Rhode Island and Connecticut. The number primarily based in Rhode Island was not immediately available, she said.

"It's not 2 percent across the board," she said. The number of reductions will vary across different cable systems, she said, depending on the size of the system and other factors.

The reductions will be accomplished through attrition, voluntary retirement and layoffs, she said, and are expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter.

"Our customers will continue to receive the outstanding customer service that they have come to expect from Cox," Quinn said.

Other telecommunications companies have also announced job cuts. Comcast, the largest U.S. cable company, said it plans to eliminate most of the 300 jobs associated with its CN8 network, which provides local programming. The company has a national workforce of about 100,000.

Philadelphia-based Comcast said the network has had lower-than-expected broadcast ratings, which made attracting advertising revenue especially difficult in the current downturn, the Associated Press reported.

"We will discontinue operations in markets where Comcast has other locally focused programming, or where CN8 has had a minimal presence," said Comcast spokesman Tim Fitzpatrick.

CN8 will stop broadcasting in New England but subscribers in the Pennsylvania communities of Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, and the Washington-Baltimore region, still will be able to watch the channel, according to the AP.

In Connecticut, AT&T plans to eliminate all residential customer service dispatch jobs in that state, beginning this week, according to Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut attorney general.

AT&T will relocate those functions to Michigan, and lay off 60 employees, according to Blumenthal. The job cuts will occur between Nov. 4 and Nov. 13, according to an email sent to employees on Oct. 30, his office said.

Blumenthal is seeking to block the job cuts, according to a news release from his office.

---