Starbucks To Cut Hundreds Of Corporate Jobs As Part Of Push To ‘Return The Company to Durable Profitable Growth’
Starbucks announced on Friday that it will cut 300 corporate jobs in the U.S. and shut down some regional support offices as part of a push to “return the company to durable, profitable growth.”
The company clarified that the cuts won’t impact coffeehouses. The cost of the decision will amount to $400 million. A Starbucks spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC that company leadership has “taken a hard look at their respective functions to further sharpen focus, prioritize work, reduce complexity, and lower costs.”
It is the third round of layoffs since CEO Brian Niccol took over the leadership of the company. The other two laid of 2,000 employees combined.
CNBC noted that, under Niccol, the company has been seeking to turn around its U.S. business. Ever since, it has improved cafe operations, added new menu items and increased staffing. The company reported that same-store sales grew 7.1% in the latest quarter. “This quarter marked a milestone for Starbucks – and the turn in our turnaround,” Niccol said in April.
Several other companies have announced layoffs over the past weeks. LinkedIn said on Wednesday that it is laying off 5% of its staff as cuts in the tech industry continue. The social network, which is a part of Microsoft, has 17,500 employees, according to its website. It has operated mostly in an independent manner.
On Thursday, Cisco Systems began notifying roughly 4,000 employees that their jobs were eliminated on the same day it posted record quarterly revenue of $15.8 billion, a 12 percent year-on-year gain.
Cisco CFO Mark Patterson told analysts Wednesday that the restructuring was “not a savings-driven” exercise, calling it instead a rapid reallocation of resources toward silicon, optics, security, and AI. The company has booked $5.3 billion in AI infrastructure orders from hyperscalers so far in its fiscal year and now projects roughly $9 billion in total AI orders for all of fiscal 2026 — up from an earlier estimate of $5 billion.
In this context, young Americans have become markedly more pessimistic about the job market, with the U.S. now showing the widest confidence gap in the world between younger and older adults on employment prospects, according to new Gallup data.
The survey found that 43% of Americans between the ages of 15 and 34 said 2025 was a good time to find a job where they live, compared to 64% of respondents aged 55 and older who said the same thing. The 21-point gap was the largest recorded among 141 countries and territories surveyed in Gallup’s World Poll.
The findings come as younger workers in the U.S. continue to navigate a labor market shaped by high-profile layoffs, especially in technology and media sectors, slower hiring in white-collar industries, and growing concerns over the impact of artificial intelligence on entry-level work. Reuters reported earlier this year that several major technology companies continued workforce reductions into 2025 even as broader inflation pressures eased.
