Alongside a hiring freeze, mobile carrier Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL; TASE:CEL) is continuing to fire employees. Sources report today that the company has fired employees in its IT systems division. The exact number of layoffs is unclear, but they are part of the adjustments and restructuring at the company in view of competition in the market.
The cutbacks at Cellcom's IT systems department are similar to the cutbacks by all the carriers, because the market is switching to a model of a very small number of customer plans, and all old plans will soon vanish. There will presumably be manpower adjustments at related departments, such as marketing.
The switch to unlimited calls plans reduces the number of plans at the carriers to a minimum. Golan Telecom Ltd. and HOT Mobile Ltd. effectively have just two plans, which require fewer IT employees.
In general, the mobile carriers will make very large adjustments in their manpower, and it can be estimated that thousands of employees will lose their jobs in the sector by the end of the year. It is not only employees at the carriers who will be affected, but also employees who provide services, due to the reductions in procurement budgets.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 25, 2012
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