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California layoffs / Verizon

Verizon California Layoffs 2026: What Employees Should Know

Verizon has 2 layoff notices on file with California's Employment Development Department (EDD) under the state's Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, covering 193 jobs in Contra Costa County, Orange County. That is what the state has published since July 2025, not an all-time total. If you were one of them, here is what the filing says, how much notice the law asks for, and what to look at before you sign anything.

What the filing says

These are the details as Verizon reported them to the state. The EDD publishes every notice, and this page reflects the data as of Jul 31, 2026.

LocationCountyNotice givenJobs endWorkersType
Walnut CreekContra Costa CountyNov 20, 2025Jan 23, 202654Layoff Permanent
IrvineOrange CountyNov 20, 2025Jan 23, 2026139Layoff Permanent

How much notice the law requires

California's WARN Act requires 60 days of advance written notice before a covered mass layoff. What makes the California version unusual is how few ways out it gives an employer. The only statutory exception is a physical calamity or an act of war. Federal law has three exceptions, including one for unforeseeable business circumstances, and the California Legislature deliberately declined to copy them.

What this filing shows

The shortest gap in these filings is 64 calendar days between the notice date and the date the jobs end. That is at or above the 60 days the statute describes.

This is a fact drawn from the public filing, not a conclusion that anyone broke the law. The date an employer records is not always the date workers were told, employers of different sizes are covered differently, and exceptions can apply. Whether it means anything in your case is exactly what a free consultation sorts out.

Verizon severance: what to check before you sign

A severance offer is not the same thing as the notice pay the WARN Act describes, and an employer cannot use one to satisfy the other. A release may also give up more than you expect, and an arbitration agreement you signed at hire can affect where a dispute is heard. Read our full guide to the California WARN Act before you decide, and consider having the paperwork looked at.

Two things worth doing this week either way. File for unemployment now, because WARN money does not reduce it. And keep every document, including the notice itself and anything showing when it arrived.

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Questions people are asking

What is the Verizon severance package?

The WARN notice Verizon filed with the state does not list severance terms, and we do not publish any employer's package. A WARN notice reports how many jobs end, where, and when. Severance is a separate contract offered at the employer's discretion. California law does not require it, and an employer cannot use contractual severance to satisfy what the WARN Act requires, so being offered a package does not by itself answer whether notice pay is also owed. If you have an offer in hand, the terms in front of you are the ones that matter, and they are worth reading closely before the deadline on them runs.

Am I owed severance from Verizon?

California law does not require severance on its own, and a severance offer is a separate thing from WARN pay. An employer cannot use contractual severance to satisfy its WARN obligation, so being offered a package does not answer whether notice pay is also owed.

Does taking the severance reduce what I could recover?

It depends on why the money is being paid. Severance the employer was already obligated to provide — under a contract, a policy, a benefit plan, or a union agreement — cannot be set against what the WARN Act requires. A payment that is genuinely voluntary and unconditional, one the employer had no legal obligation to make, can reduce that liability. Wages for work you actually performed during the notice period are not voluntary severance at all. Which category an offer falls into is a question about the document in front of you, not about the layoff, and it is one of the better reasons to have the paperwork read before the deadline on it runs.

What if I did not get 60 days of notice?

California's WARN Act requires 60 days of advance written notice before a covered mass layoff, and its only statutory exception is a physical calamity or an act of war. That is far narrower than federal law, which has three exceptions. The shortest gap in these filings is 64 days, at or above the 60 the statute describes. Notice can still fall short in practice if it did not reach you when the filing says, or if it lacked what the statute requires it to contain.

Can I still collect unemployment?

Yes. Under Labor Code section 1407, WARN-related payments are not treated as wages for unemployment purposes, so they cannot be used to deny or reduce your benefits in California. You do not have to wait for your last day — the filings here run through Jan 23, 2026 — and filing early is generally better than filing late.

Does taking a new job hurt my claim?

No. Wages you earn at a new job during the notice period do not reduce what a former employer may owe under WARN. You do not need to delay a job search to protect a claim.

How long do I have to act?

Generally three years. The federal WARN Act sets no limitations period of its own, so courts borrow the closest state deadline, which in California is the three-year period for a liability created by statute. The clock starts when you suffer an employment loss, not when the notice went out. Measured from the last day of work in these filings, Jan 23, 2026, three years runs to about Jan 23, 2029. If this was a layoff rather than an outright termination, the loss may not count until the layoff has lasted more than six months, which can start the clock later still. Treat all of it as an outer edge rather than a plan. Other claims arising from the same layoff run much shorter, and a severance offer usually carries its own deadline measured in days.

What has been reported

Press coverage of this layoff, summarized and attributed. This is reporting rather than the filing itself, and we did not independently verify it.

The Irvine and Walnut Creek notices carry a November 20, 2025 notice date, the same day Verizon announced it would cut more than 13,000 jobs in the largest single layoff in its history. CNBC reported that new CEO Dan Schulman told employees the company would reduce its workforce by more than 13,000 across the organization and significantly reduce outsourced and other outside labor expenses, and that Verizon also planned to convert 179 corporate-owned retail stores into franchises and close one store.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Schulman announced the cuts in a company-wide memo and that they touched every part of the company, with employees describing district directors, business leads and operations teams being let go. Verizon said the cuts were not the result of the company's use of AI, according to CNBC.

Details worth knowing

  • Schulman said Verizon was establishing a $20 million career transition fund for laid-off employees, which the San Francisco Chronicle described as focused on digital training and job placement.

Sources: CNBC (opens in a new tab)San Francisco Chronicle (via Yahoo Finance) (opens in a new tab)

What the numbers show

  • The filings name 2 locations: Walnut Creek and Irvine.
  • They cover 2 separate addresses rather than a single site, so co-workers at different locations may have received different dates.
  • By headcount it sits in the top 20% of the 593 employer layoffs tracked here.
  • The 193 workers leaving Verizon re-enter a job market where Orange County unemployment stood at 4.1% in June 2026, below the 5.2% statewide rate (Bureau of Labor Statistics, not seasonally adjusted).
  • All 2 notices are dated within a single month, November 2025, which reads as one event reported site by site rather than a rolling reduction.

These are counts and comparisons drawn from the published filings, not findings about Verizon.

Free job-search help near the affected sites

America's Job Center of California is the state's no-cost network for laid-off workers: help filing and keeping unemployment benefits, federally funded retraining, and résumé and interview coaching. Your WARN notice may name one; these are the closest to the sites in these filings.

Locations and hours change — confirm before visiting, or find another center with the EDD's center locator (opens in a new tab). Directory: U.S. Department of Labor, Jul 31, 2026; distances are straight-line from the address in the filing.

Other layoffs filed in Orange County around the same time

63 employers have WARN notices on file in Orange County, covering 7,118 workers. These filed within about a quarter of this one.

Listed because they appear in the same county in the same public data. No connection between these employers is implied.

Key points

Each point is explained and sourced above · Verified July 31, 2026

Key points from Verizon California layoffs 2026, verified as of July 31, 2026

  • Workers affected · Contra Costa County, Orange County · published since July 2025

    193

    CA EDD WARN report

  • Notices filed · California · published July 2025 to July 2026

    2

    CA EDD WARN report

  • Jobs end · As filed

    Jan 23, 2026

    CA EDD WARN report

  • Days between notice and last day · Arithmetic on two published dates

    64 calendar days

    CA EDD WARN report

  • Orange County unemployment rate · vs 5.2% statewide, not seasonally adjusted

    4.1% (June 2026)

    BLS Local Area Unemployment Statistics

  • Notice California law describes · California

    60 days before a covered mass layoff

    Lab. Code § 1401

  • Available exceptions · California

    Physical calamity or act of war only

    Lab. Code § 1401

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