Lyondell Basell Industries to lay off 345 workers

HOUSTON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Lyondell Basell Industries (LYB) will lay off 345 workers, or 86% of the workforce, at its shuttered Houston refinery on April 17, according to a filing with the Texas Workforce Commission.

There are around 400 Lyondell employees working at the 263,776 barrel-per-day Houston refinery. About 70% of them are hourly workers represented by the United Steelworkers union (USW).

Reuters reported on February 18 that Lyondell Houston refinery layoffs were expected to begin in mid-April.

 

The workforce reduction comes after Lyondell completed the shutdown of the Houston refinery earlier this month, people familiar with plant operations told Reuters.

Houston Refining is one of the largest refineries in the United States designed to process heavy-sulfur crude oil, according to the company.

Starbucks lays off 1,100 corporate employees as coffee chain streamlines

Starbucks plans to lay off 1,100 corporate employees globally as new Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol streamlines operations.

In a letter to employees released Monday, Niccol said the company will inform employees who are being laid off by mid-day Tuesday. Niccol said Starbucks is also eliminating several hundred open and unfilled positions.

“Our intent is to operate more efficiently, increase accountability, reduce complexity and drive better integration,” Niccol wrote in the letter.

Starbucks has 16,000 corporate support employees worldwide, but that includes some employees who aren't impacted, like roasting and warehouse staff. Baristas in the company's stores are not included in the layoffs.

HSBC Plans New Round of Investment Bank Job Cuts Next Week

 (Bloomberg) -- HSBC Holdings Plc is kicking off a fresh round of job cuts at its investment bank as new Chief Executive Officer Georges Elhedery continues his overhaul of Europe’s biggest lender, according to people familiar with the matter.

(Bloomberg) -- HSBC Holdings Plc is kicking off a fresh round of job cuts at its investment bank as new Chief Executive Officer Georges Elhedery continues his overhaul of Europe’s biggest lender, according to people familiar with the matter.

Since taking charge in September, Elhedery has already cut the size of his own group executive committee by about a third. Reductions to senior staffers were expected to affect a little over 40% of the company’s top 175 managers, Bloomberg reported in December. The bank has said it expects to complete the moves by June.

Blue Origin to layoff about 10% across its space, launch business

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The CEO of Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin announced in an all-hands call on Thursday company-wide layoffs of "about 10 percent" of its employees, a sweeping readjustment as it aims to cut costs and ramp up rocket launches.

The layoffs affect roughly 1,400 of the company's nearly 14,000 employees - mostly concentrated in Florida, Texas and Washington - and comes as Blue Origin starts production of its giant New Glenn rocket, which had its first long-awaited debut launch last month.

"There's no easy way to communicate this," CEO Dave Limp told employees in the meeting, which was scheduled the night prior and lasted about 10 minutes. "There's no question that we've had a lot of successes over the last few months."

"But that being said, when you look at the foundation of the company and what we need to get to over the next three to five years, we just came to the painful conclusion that we aren't set up for the kind of success that we really wanted to have," Limp said.

Limp said the decision would help Blue Origin scale New Glenn manufacturing and increase the rocket's launch cadence, two goals crucial to competing with Elon Musk's SpaceX and its dominant Falcon 9.

To do that, the company needs a culture that is "quick, nimble, decisive, and very focused on our customers," said Limp, who was plucked by Bezos from Amazon's customer-focused devices unit in late 2023 to lead Blue Origin.

Chevron to lay off 15% to 20% of global workforce

HOUSTON (Reuters) -Chevron will lay off 15% to 20% of its global workforce by the end of 2026, as it seeks to cut costs and simplify its business, the U.S. oil company said on Wednesday.

Chevron is embroiled in a court battle with rival Exxon Mobil over its planned acquisition of oil producer Hess, which is the cornerstone of its plans for increasing oil production. At the same time, the company is facing weak margins in its refining business, which reported a loss in the fourth quarter for the first time since 2020.

The layoffs come as the company has said it is targeting $3 billion in cost cuts through 2026 from leveraging technology, asset sales and changing how and where work is performed.

At the end of 2023, Chevron employed 40,212 people across its operations. A layoff of 20% of total employees would be about 8,000 people.

Estee Lauder to cut up to 7,000 jobs

NEW YORK (AP) — Estee Lauder may trim as many as 7,000 jobs by fiscal 2026, more than 11% of its workforce, after the global beauty cosmetics maker lost money in its most recent quarter as reported a 6% sales slump

The New York company behind such brands as MAC, La Mer and Aveda tempered its profit outlook as the economies of China and Korea slow, in addition to global geopolitical uncertainty.

China announced retaliatory tariffs on some American imports and an antitrust investigation into Google on Tuesday, just minutes after a sweeping levy on Chinese products imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump took effect.

Estee Lauder expects to book restructuring and other charges related to the job cuts of between $1.2 billion and $1.6 billion, before taxes.

As of June 30, 2024, Estee Lauder had roughly 62,000 employees worldwide, according to the company’s latest annual filing.

ELC has been under fire for months. In November, Jane Lauder stepped down as vice president of enterprise marketing and chief data officer. That move left the company Lauder-less when it comes to day-to-day operations. Some observers speculated she left after trying to oust her cousin William Lauder from the executive chairman’s seat. Last month, Ronald S. Lauder announced he would retire from the board of directors.

The C-suite shakeup began last year when long-time CEO Fabrizio Freda announced his retirement. Stéphane de La Faverie took over on Jan. 1, 2025.