PepsiCo is cutting hundreds of corporate jobs at its North American snacks and beverage divisions, making it the latest large employer to scale back its white-collar workforce.
The layoffs are also a signal, according to the Wall Street Journal, that corporate belt-tightening is extending beyond tech and media companies, as companies brace for a tighter economic environment.
PepsiCo’s portfolio includes Gatorade drinks, Frito-Lay snacks, and Quaker Oats foods. The company’s beverage unit is expected to be hit harder by the cuts because the snacks unit already shrank its workforce through a voluntary retirement program.
Some of the country’s largest employers, including Walmart, Amazon, and Facebook, have recently slashed thousands of white-collar jobs. That’s on top of heavy job reductions in the media world, including CNN and Gannett newspapers.
The PepsiCo cuts will occur within its beverage business based in Purchase, N.Y., as well as its snacks and packaged food business, headquartered both in Chicago and Plano, Texas, reports the Washington Post.
The company sent a memo to staff explaining that the goal was to simplify the organization so it can operate “more efficiently, according to Market Watch. Shares of Pepsi were flat in the extended session Monday after ending the regular trading day down 1.4 percent.
Pepsi employed 309,000 people worldwide as of December 5, with more than 40 percent of those jobs located in the U.S., according to a company regulatory filing.
