How many employees does Verizon have? Headcount by year and quarter

This page is for sellers, analysts and anyone who needs a Verizon headcount they can cite: the latest number, what it counts and how it has moved. Profile-based data sites give a range of figures for Verizon, few of them dated. Every number here comes from Verizon's annual report on Form 10-K or its quarterly earnings releases, which it files with the SEC on Form 8-K.

Verizon employees by year

Verizon reports its headcount as of December 31 in the Human Capital section of its 10-K.

Each filing gives the figures as "approximately". The changes are our arithmetic.

Verizon headcount by quarter

Verizon's quarterly earnings release, filed as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K, includes "Total employees" in its table of selected operating statistics, in thousands and on a full-time equivalent basis.

Verizon completed its acquisition of Frontier Communications on January 20, 2026, and Frontier's results are included from that date, which explains the jump in the first quarter. The filings don't say how many Frontier employees joined, so the 9,700 rise mixes the acquisition with Verizon's own hiring and leaving. Headcount has fallen 6,300 since March. The Q2 2026 release reports "severance charges of $397 million."

What the number includes

• Full-time equivalents. The 2025 10-K says "Verizon has approximately 89,900 employees on a full-time equivalent basis as of December 31, 2025, 89% of whom are based in the U.S." Part-time staff count as a fraction of a full-time job, so the number of people on the payroll is somewhat higher. The 2018 and 2019 filings said only that "Verizon and its subsidiaries had approximately" that many employees; the FTE basis is stated from 2020.
• Subsidiaries included. The count covers Verizon and its subsidiaries. The 2021 figure includes "approximately 800 Tracfone employees" who joined with that acquisition in November 2021.
• Contractors excluded. Outside labor isn't in the count. When it announced the 2025 cut, Verizon said it also expected "a significant reduction in outsourced, contracted and other outside labor expense."
• Unions. The Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers "in total represented approximately 27%" of employees at December 31, 2025. The 10-K said the agreements for represented employees serving the mid-Atlantic and northeast extended through August 1, 2026.
• No segment split. Verizon reports two segments, Consumer and Business, but no headcount for either.

What changed and why

2018 and 2019: voluntary separation

In September 2018 Verizon offered a voluntary separation program to select US-based management employees. The 2018 annual report says "Approximately 10,400 eligible employees will separate from the Company under this program by the end of June 2019," with a $1.8 billion severance charge in 2018. Headcount fell 9,500 in 2019.

2021: selling Verizon Media

On September 1, 2021 Verizon completed the sale of Verizon Media, its media and advertising business. Year-end headcount fell 13,800, even with Tracfone's 800 added.

2023 and 2024: cost programs

The 2023 10-K records "an increase of $533 million in personnel costs from severance charges." In the third quarter of 2024 Verizon recorded $1.7 billion of severance charges for "separations under the company's voluntary separation program for select U.S.-based management employees as well as other headcount reduction initiatives." Headcount fell 17,500 over the two years.

2025: over 13,000 positions

On November 20, 2025 Verizon filed an 8-K saying that "The workforce reduction will include the elimination of over 13,000 positions," with "over 80% of the affected employees exiting the business in December 2025." It expected a severance charge of $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion; its reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA shows $1,715 million of severance charges for 2025.

Revenue per employee

Verizon's 2025 consolidated operating revenues were $138,191 million. Divided by the year-end headcount, that's $138,191 million ÷ 89,900 = about $1.54 million per employee (our calculation).

Read the 2025 figure with care: most of the 13,000 people left in December, after working nearly all year. On the year-start count of 99,600, the same revenue gives about $1.39 million. Either way the trend is clear: revenue held steady while the workforce shrank. By segment, Consumer brought in $106,807 million in 2025 (77%) and Business $29,069 million (21%). For other companies measured this way, see the highest revenue per employee list.

Selling to a company this size

General guidance on how organizations of 90,000 people buy, not a description of Verizon's internal processes.

• Start with the segment. Consumer and Business serve different customers with different systems, budgets and leaders. Pick the one your product helps.
• Sell the saving. A company that has cut its workforce at every year end since 2018 and is also reducing outside labor expense wants vendors that take cost out. Show the arithmetic in its terms.
• Watch the integration. Combining an acquired network and its people creates projects in billing, field operations and customer systems for a year or more after closing.
• Plan for review time. Expect security, legal and procurement reviews before a first order, and more for anything that touches the network or customer data.
• Name the people. Work out who signs, who uses and who can block. Our guide to finding decision makers shows how.

Working out which team owns your problem is the slow part in an account this large. Bebop researches each account and suggests who to talk to and the angle to open with; check what it finds against the company's filings.

How to check Verizon's headcount yourself

1. Search SEC EDGAR for Verizon Communications Inc. (CIK 732712) and open the latest 10-K, filed each February.
2. In Item 1, Business, find Human Capital Resources. The first sentence gives the full-time equivalent count, the date and the US share; the union share follows.
3. For a newer figure, open the latest 8-K that lists Item 2.02, then Exhibit 99.1, and find "Total employees" in the selected financial and operating statistics.
4. Before comparing with another company, check the basis: Verizon reports full-time equivalents, not a head count of people.

Next step: see how Verizon compares with other big US employers in the largest employers in the US.