PepsiCo is cutting about 1,000 jobs across its North America food and beverage business, in changes its North America chief told employees will roll out over the coming week — the company's latest attempt to revive a home market where beverage volumes are falling, snack volumes are flat and a promised earnings recovery is running late. The Wall Street Journal first reported the roughly 1,000 figure; CNBC reported the plan on November 9, and Reuters obtained the letter to employees in which it was announced.

Source: WorkersRights.News (Nov. 11, 2026), citing Reuters, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal

In the November 9 letter, Ram Krishnan, chief executive of PepsiCo North America, wrote that 'too much of how we work today remains complex and fragmented,' Bloomberg reported, and set the goal as 'to move faster, execute better, and invest behind the opportunities that will drive our growth.' The company plans to reduce headcount in phases to streamline operations and strengthen collaboration across teams, CNBC reported. Neither the letter, as quoted, nor PepsiCo has said which roles or which locations are affected — a gap that matters for workers trying to work out whether their own jobs are in scope.

Source: Seoul Economic Daily, reporting CNBC (Nov. 10, 2026)

The weak quarter behind the cuts

PepsiCo telegraphed the move in its October 8 third-quarter release. North America beverage volume fell 2% from a year earlier and food (snack) volume was flat, while snacks grew overseas. The company cut its full-year core earnings-per-share growth forecast to 2.5% to 3.5%, down from the low end of 5% to 7%. Chief Financial Officer Steve Schmitt acknowledged on the earnings call that the recovery had been slower than expected despite price cuts and increased marketing spending, and chief executive Ramon Laguarta said 'additional structural cost reduction actions are being identified and will be implemented in the coming months.' The push for savings also follows activist investor Elliott Investment Management taking a roughly $4 billion stake in the company about a year ago, Reuters reported.

Source: WorkersRights.News (Nov. 11, 2026), citing Reuters, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal

PepsiCo shares closed at $141.88, up $0.54, or 0.38%, in the session after the job cuts were reported — but the stock is down about 1% so far this year, far behind the S&P 500's gain of about 11% over the same period. The roughly 1,000 cuts equal less than 1% of the company's approximately 125,000 U.S. employees.

Source: Seoul Economic Daily, reporting CNBC (Nov. 10, 2026)

Part of a wider autumn of big-employer cuts

PepsiCo is not alone. This autumn has brought a run of large U.S. workforce announcements, including Boeing's plan to cut about 5% of its Commercial Airplanes workforce — roughly 2,500 jobs, with layoff notices starting in December — alongside reported cuts at Disney and Fiserv. The contrast with the wider labour market is sharp: the October jobs report, released November 6, showed U.S. employers adding 165,000 jobs, well above the roughly 59,000–65,000 economists expected, with unemployment slipping to 4.1%. Big-company restructurings and a still-hiring wider economy are running at the same time.

Source: WorkersRights.News (Nov. 11, 2026), citing Reuters, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal

What notice are affected workers owed?

That depends heavily on how the cuts are spread. The federal WARN Act covers employers with 100 or more full-time employees and requires 60 days' written notice before a plant closing or mass layoff — but it counts job losses at a single site of employment: a plant closing means 50 or more jobs lost at one site, and a mass layoff means at least 50 people who make up a third of a site's workforce, or 500 people at one site. A thousand cuts spread across offices and teams nationwide may never cross those lines at any one location. PepsiCo has used the WARN process when a whole site closed: it gave notice in 2025 for 287 workers at its Liberty, New York, snack plant, and filed one this year for 248 jobs at a Frito-Lay distribution site in Rancho Cucamonga, California.

Source: WorkersRights.News (Nov. 11, 2026), citing Reuters, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal

State rules reach further in several states with large Punjabi diaspora communities. California requires employers with 75 or more employees to give 60 days' notice of a layoff of 50 or more people within 30 days, regardless of percentage. New York requires 90 days' notice from employers with 50 or more full-time workers for layoffs of 25 or more who are at least a third of a site, or 250 or more. Illinois requires 60 days' notice in comparable cases, and New Jersey requires 90 days' notice when a layoff hits 50 or more workers at a worksite, plus one week of severance for each year of service. None of that can be applied to this round yet, because PepsiCo has not named the sites involved.

Source: WorkersRights.News (Nov. 11, 2026), citing Reuters, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal

What happens next

The cuts are due to roll out over the coming week, in phases, and the first hard public evidence of where they land will likely be state WARN filings in states such as California, New York, New Jersey and Illinois if any single site crosses those states' thresholds. For the company, the test set by its own executives is whether lower costs and a simpler structure can revive North America volumes — beverages down 2%, food flat — without weakening the brand investment Laguarta has said the turnaround needs. For workers, the immediate question the company has left unanswered is the simplest one: which jobs.

Source: Seoul Economic Daily, reporting CNBC (Nov. 10, 2026)