Monsanto have announced that they going to cut a further 1,000 jobs amid a decline in worldwide sales and a blaming “sluggish farming economy”.
The layoffs are in addition to the 2,600 already planned, which amounts to a staggering 16 percent of the company’s entire workforce.
Bizjournals.com reports:
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The scope of the cuts will vary from country to country and will continue into 2018, they said.
Additional cuts will also lead to increased restructuring costs, as the company pays severance and closes facilities, from the originally announced charges of up to $900 million to, now, as much as $1.2 billion.
Of that, $493 million incurred during in the fourth quarter of 2015 and $318 million in the first quarter 2016, officials said.
In late October Monsanto laid off 90 employees at research locations in North Carolina, Wisconsin and Connecticut, and moved another 65 employees from those facilities to its Chesterfield research center.
The company confirmed in November that the layoffs had extended to Monsanto’s St. Louis-area locations, but did not say exactly how many local employees were let go. “Every employee whose job has been eliminated received a competitive severance package, including a lump sum cash payment ranging from 6 to 15 months of eligible pay based on years of service as well as base pay and average annual incentives paid,” a spokeswoman said at the time. Employees also receive job transition services, she added.
A Monsanto spokeswoman reiterated Wednesday that the new cuts would “take place across a variety of functions/units globally.”
The job cuts are part of a larger cost-saving initiative by Monsanto, meant to make the company more efficient and save Monsanto $275 million to $300 million annually by the end of fiscal 2017.
As part of the restructuring, Monsanto said it would streamline some commercial and research development work, and that it would exit the sugarcane business.
Monsanto had about 5,460 total employees in the St. Louis area as of June 30, according to Business Journal research. The company’s current local workforce makes up about 24 percent of its global staff of 22,400.
