Starbucks Layoffs 2026: 300 Jobs Cut in Third Round of Cuts

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Starbucks is laying off around 300 U.S. corporate employees as part of CEO Brian Niccol’s ongoing “Back to Starbucks” turnaround strategy. The layoffs mainly affect corporate roles, not store workers.

This is the coffee giant’s third round of mass layoffs in just over a year. The bad news is that this time, it's not just cutting jobs. It's closing offices too.

Is Starbucks Cutting 300 Corporate Jobs?

Starbucks will eliminate 300 corporate jobs in the US and close four regional offices as part of its turnaround effort. 

The cuts will affect employees in support functions such as marketing, human resources, and supply chain management. No coffeehouse employees are affected.

Starbucks is also closing underused offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, and other cities. 

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And it's not stopping there. The company has started a review of its international corporate workforce, though no international employees are affected for now.

The latest restructuring will result in about $400 million in charges, including a $280 million write-down because some of its long-term assets are impaired, and $120 million in cash charges tied to severance pay. Most of the plan's actions will be completed by the end of fiscal 2026.

This Is Round Three of Layoffs

This isn't a one-off move. 

It's part of a much larger pattern under CEO Brian Niccol, who took over Starbucks in late 2024 with a mandate to fix what had become a deeply troubled company.

In February 2025, Niccol said the company would cut 1,100 jobs and not fill several hundred other open positions. 

Seven months later, the company announced another 900 job losses for its nonretail workers as part of a $1 billion restructuring plan.

Add Friday's 300 cuts on top of that, and Starbucks has now undertaken three major rounds of layoffs since the start of 2025 as CEO Brian Niccol seeks to simplify operations and return the business to sustained profitable growth. 

Niccol's strategy, officially called the "Back to Starbucks" plan, is built on a simple premise that the company had gotten too complicated and too expensive to run, while the in-store experience had deteriorated. 

His fix has two sides.

• On the store side, under Niccol, Starbucks has improved cafe operations, added new menu items, reintroduced seating to its locations, and beefed up staffing at its coffeehouses.
• On the corporate side, the approach has been aggressive cost-cutting. A Starbucks spokesperson said the actions were part of the company's turnaround strategy.

A Starbucks spokesperson said in a statement:

“We are taking further action under the Back to Starbucks strategy, building on our strong business momentum and working to return the company to durable, profitable growth. Leaders have taken a hard look at their respective functions to further sharpen focus, prioritize work, reduce complexity, and lower costs.”

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Despite the layoffs, Starbucks is still investing in expansion. 

Reports mention a planned $100 million office hub in Nashville that could eventually house around 2,000 employees.

Thankfully, AI was not mentioned directly like many other layoffs in 2026.

Bottom Line

It's easy to get lost in the strategy talk and forget that these are real jobs. 

The 300 employees being cut this round are people who likely didn't see this coming when they signed up to work at one of the world's most recognizable brands.

Starbucks had 9,000 non-retail workers in the US before this latest round, which means this cut alone eliminates roughly 3% of its US corporate headcount in one announcement.

Severance is part of the $400 million charge, so affected employees will receive some financial support. But office closures in multiple cities mean some workers may also face the additional disruption of relocating or losing their teams entirely.