A person walks past a Bell store in downtown Montreal. The company's work force was about 4 per cent smaller than the year prior at the end of 2025.Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press
Bell Canada parent company BCE Inc. BCE-T dropped 1,700 net jobs in 2025, the second year in a row of major losses and the latest sign of the telecom industry’s continued contraction, as BCE and its rivals look to cut costs and pay down billions in debt.
At the end of 2025, BCE had 38,683 employees, compared with 40,390 employees at the end of 2024, according to the company’s annual report, filed Friday morning.
This decrease of about 4 per cent was the result of work force reductions, natural attrition and retirements, the company said.
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This overall loss, while less steep than the previous year, reflects the industry’s efforts to streamline operations as they contend with slow growth, price competition and stagnant population size.
The telecom companies have attributed some of these reductions to business efficiencies and technology upgrades, like the replacement of copper wire with fibre optic cable, which they say requires less maintenance.
BCE’s job losses, which include a reduction of its media division employees and sizable management layoffs, also factor in additional U.S.-based jobs from an August acquisition.
Last August, BCE acquired Ziply Fiber, an internet company operating in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. A fact sheet prepared by Ziply Fiber in November, 2025, after it had been acquired by BCE, said it had approximately 1,700 employees.
U.S.-based Ziply employees now make up about 4 per cent of BCE’s company’s work force, according to the report, or approximately 1,500 employees.
This means that BCE’s job reductions would have been higher without the additional Ziply employees or those from other small acquisitions made throughout the year.
That includes a November layoff of approximately 650 non-unionized management employees, and of 40 Bell Media employees.
While the percentage of employees working in the company’s media division remained the same at 12 per cent, the company’s overall employee count fell, suggesting a media division contraction of about 200 employees.
BCE’s 2025 losses are smaller than the previous year, when the company underwent a major restructuring and cut approximately 4,800 jobs.
Approximately 39 per cent of BCE employees were represented by unions and were covered by collective agreements as of the end of 2025. This is down 3 per cent from the previous year.