NEW YORK —

Verizon is laying off more than 13,000 employees in mass job reductions that arrive as the telecommunications giant says it must "reorient" its entire company.

The jobs cuts began on Thursday, per a staff memo from Verizon CEO Dan Schulman. In the letter, which was seen by The Associated Press, Schulman said Verizon's current cost structure "limits" the company's ability to invest — pointing particularly to customer experiences.

"We must reorient our entire company around delivering for and delighting our customers," Schulman wrote. He added that the company needed to simplify its operations "to address the complexity and friction that slow us down and frustrate our customers."

Verizon had nearly 100,000 full-time employees as of the end of last year, according to securities

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