Todd Clausen

@ToddJClausen

Growing number of firms operating in Rochester are announcing large-scale job cuts.

Company announced a nationwide restructuring effort that will impact 1,000 jobs.

Another company with operations outside Rochester has announced a large-scale round of layoffs.

Frontier Communications Corp. announced a restructuring effort that would centralize several divisions within the company to reduce expenses and duplicative operations and improve operational performance.

President and CEO Dan McCarthy told investors, according to a transcript by Seeking Alpha, during the company’s earnings call Tuesday that roughly 1,000 workers nationwide would be laid off as part of the restructuring effort.

"It became apparent that this change was necessary," McCarthy said. "We'll be driving that through the fourth quarter into the first quarter and then try and accelerate the additional synergies even faster."

Frontier had already been looking at various cost reductions, reportedly eliminating 250 mid-level management positions earlier this year while targeting $1.25 billion in cost synergies, or savings. McCarthy said the company was looking for an additional $250 million in "yet-to-be attained" savings by mid-2017.

Frontier is among a growing list of companies operating in the Rochester area that have announced large-scale layoffs in recent days.

Verizon Communications said it would close a facility in Henrietta while eliminating or moving 648 jobs. IEC Electronics Corp., based in Newark, Wayne County, let go of 73 full-time workers and an undisclosed number of temporary workers. Sears and Kmart announced earlier this year that they were eliminating 122 local jobs.

Xerox has shed some 350 local jobs since the start of the year while embarking on its own restructuring and corporate split. Some of those reductions were through natural attrition and voluntary retirements while others were the direct impact of layoffs.

Thomson Reuters, which employs roughly 500 in downtown Rochester, announced plans this week to cut 2,000 jobs by the end of the year. Most of those jobs are expected to be in the firm's financial and risk business and its enterprise, technology and operations group and may have little impact on its local legal publishing and other operations.

Company officials said on an earnings call that mid-level managers are being targeted in the layoffs. "The actions are designed to reduce complexity in our business and improve our service to customers," David Girardin, a company spokesman, said in an email.

Xerox's Rochester workforce down 5.4% in 2016

Meanwhile, CenturyLink said on Monday that it would acquire Level 3 Communications. The combined firms expect to cash in on $1 billion of expected cost savings from sharing data lines and cutting overlapping jobs, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Officials at Thomson Reuters and Level 3 declined to provide more specific information on cost-cutting measures.

To some degree, all the companies reported declining quarterly results. For instance, Frontier said third-quarter revenue declined $84 million compared to the same period a year earlier. The company also has struggled with losses in its broadband business and mounting complaints from consumers as it works to intergrate its acquisition of Verizon's land-line operations of phone, Internet and FiOS TV services out West.

Frontier declined to provide details on how its layoffs might impact the Rochester area, except to say that cuts will hit workers in 29 states over the next several weeks.

"They will be eligible to receive severance benefits and Frontier is also supplementing the first two months of COBRA medical benefits, allowing them to pay the active employee rate for benefits during those months," Patricia Amendola, a company spokesperson, said in an email.

Frontier is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, and employs aproximately 1,800 in the Rochester area.

TCLAUSEN@Gannett.com