The country's recession is producing a number of layoffs. AT&T just announced it's cutting more than 10,000 jobs and now Windstream plans to cut back on it's workforce. Windstream announced Thursday that it's laying off 170 employees, 30 of them in the Cornhusker state.

It's not the first time Windstream and companies like it have made cuts. The economy has played a big role, forcing Windstream to pinch pennies just like most everyone else. However, Windstream and other phone companies are also fighting a battle against technology and a new generation of phone users.

For the second time in just more than a year, Windstream is letting people go. A year ago it was 100 Nebraska jobs, this time it's 30.

"It's always a hard decision when you impact people and we value our people very much, so yes, it was a very hard decision," said Brad Hedrick, vice president of Windstream operations for Nebraska.

Twenty-two of the employees laid off are members of the Communication Workers of America union, and represented by it's president, Mike Arnold, who says these layoffs are becoming more common thanks to the changing telecommunications field.

"The younger generation is going to the cellular side," said Arnold.

The problem is traditional land line phones, like the service Windstream offers, are losing customers as entire households go wireless instead.

"Land lines are shrinking and being done away with altogether by the younger kids," said Arnold. "As the technologies evolve with the wireless side you're going to be able to get everything you can through the wire line side, wirelessly."

That begs the question, how many more people will be laid off by companies like Windstream? Or even, how long will they survive?

"I have no reason to believe that eventually it won't all go away and everything will be through the airwaves rather than under the ground and hanging on poles," said Arnold.

Arnold says the union will now work with the employees laid off, trying to help them decide which layoff option they want to take from the company. Those options are essentially a voluntary severance package, retirement, or repositioning within the company. Because of union contracts, Arnold says repositioning is an option where senior employees may be able to bump down to a lower job, which would in turn bump someone else out of a job.

The company says it would be willing to hire all those people back if the business climate improves sometime in the future.