McDonald's CEO says layoffs coming by April to reduce costs

New York, Jan 7

McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski has announced that layoffs are coming by April, as the global fast food chain aims to reduce costs and "free up resources to invest in growth."

Kempczinski told The Wall Street Journal that "some jobs that are existing today are either going to get moved or those jobs may go away."

McDonald's plans to communicate its decision around layoffs by April 3.

McDonald's last reported nearly 200,000 corporate staff and workers at the company-owned restaurants.

In a memo to employees and reported by CNN, Kempczinski said that they "will evaluate roles and staffing levels in parts of the organisation and there will be difficult discussions and decisions ahead."

"Certain initiatives will be de-prioritised or stopped altogether. This will help us move faster as an organisation, while reducing our global costs and freeing up resources to invest in our growth," he said in the memo.

McDonald's, in fact, made a lot of money during the pandemic as people ordered more takeout and sales surged.

However, the CEO said that while there's a lot for us to be proud of, "you've also told us that there's more we can do. We're performing at a high level, but we can do even better."

Kempczinski said that he expects to save money as part of the staffing changes.

McDonald's layoff announcement comes as some of the largest US companies like Amazon, Goldman Sachs and Salesforce have announced massive layoffs as the New Year began