AT&T reduces lay-off count

AT&T Corp, widely criticised for plans to lay off 40,000 employees, has drastically reduced the number of people it expects to fire as a result of its plans to split into three companies.

AT&T also reduced its estimate of the number of jobs to be cut as part of its restructuring, to 34,000 from 40,000, due to plans to rehire about 6,000 workers in growth areas.