OK, Can You Fire Me Now?

Verizon announced 2Q profits were down 21%, necessitating 8,000 more employees getting the big hang-up.

Verizon, the nation's largest wireless carrier, said Monday its second-quarter profit fell 21 percent as cost-cutting in its wireline business failed to keep pace with falling revenues.

The company will be cutting more than 8,000 employee and contractor jobs before the end of the year in the wireline business, speeding up its efforts to keep costs in line, according to chief financial officer John Killian.

In recent years, Verizon has balanced layoffs in wireline with hiring in wireless, but Chief Operating Officer Denny Strigl said that would not be the case this time.

"We probably will not have large-scale hiring until we're out of the recession," Strigl said in an interview.

But...I thought we were out of the recession, according to the "experts."

Funny how that works.