Tonight, a big announcement from one of
the biggest employers based in Minnesota,
Fridley's Medtronic,
said it's going to lay off somef
its employees around the world,
but what we still don't know exy
is how many jobs that will be,
and that's been a bit of a trend lately
following several changes annoud
by Minnesota's biggest corporate
employers that are short on det.
Tonight, Kent joins us to
explain what we know right now.
Jenna We know Medtronic now jois
another major local employer,
Best Buy, in announcing layoffs
in just the last few days.
Meanwhile, Wells Fargo is moving some
local employees around the metr.
Now, beyond those headlines,
though, there really aren't
that many details to be had.
So I'm going to do my best to run through
some of the information that we know,
and then we'll get to the big picture.
All right,
let's start with the Medtronic layoffs.
Keep in mind, the company is mu,
much larger than its Fridley cas
with nearly 100,000 employees worldwide.
We do not know at this point how many of
those employees are being laid off or where.
Only that notification started
going out today and will contine
for several months to come.
In a statement today,
the company said the layoffs are
designed to better position the
company for future growth.
I thought that sounded like a
vague corporate kind of speak,
so I spoke to Chris Farrell,
senior economics contributor
for NPR News and Marketplace,
to help translate.
He says it stems from Medtronics
decision to spin off companies
and restructure last year.
The company is under a lot of
pressure both to lower its costs
and to show its growth strategy.
In a way, similar thinking is behind the
announcement from Best Buy that they are
laying off hundreds of employees as well,
not at its corporate campus in Richfield,
but in its. Stores nationwide.
Again, we are short on specific,
but the company says it will
cut some consultant roles,
people who specialize in certain
departments like laptops and cell phones.
In a statement, the company says it's
evolving our stores and the experiences
we offer to better reflect the changes
in customer shopping behavior.
And Speaking of evolving,
Wells Fargo isn't talking about layoffs,
but the company is downsizing
its office footprint,
announcing that it will sell its
Wells Fargo home mortgage office
building in South Minneapolis.
And move out of another buildinn
Saint Louis Park in order to relocate
those corporate employees elsew,
including downtown Minneapolis,
explaining the move by saying te
way that we work is evolving.
Again,
it's still hard to know how these evolving
companies will impact our communities,
neighborhoods and of course families,
And that alone can be nerve wracking,
Chris says.
It's all a reflection of the
economic uncertainty going on.
Right now,
so
I think a lot of managements right now
are saying, look, let's be caut.
We don't know if there's going
to be recession, but their costs
have gone out in most companies.
You know, that's the part of ths
supply chain that we've talked
about in the past and the higher
inflation and we have higher wa.
So it's just simply more expense
these days to be running your company.
So if I were to say right now is there
a management mantra, it's cauti,
keep our cost down frankly.
Don't take any big bets right n.
For the record,
Chris says he's also not betting
big on layoff numbers, either.
That's because, he says,
companies are also still dealing
with a generational shift in
employment and workforce.
They're just simply as a shortage of Labor.
And so people are holding on
to workers more. They would.
They're going to hire workers
who are getting laid off.
And I think that's why it has ts
fundamental different feel than it has.
In previous times,
when you're seeing a number of
industries starting to lay off workers
now, of course none of this will
come as any comfort to anyone wo
may have learned that they've bn
laid off today or are concernedt
they will be in the weeks to co.
But again, Chris said,
many of those who are being laid
off are also still in high demad
jobs and are quickly finding
new opportunities. Jenna.
Thanks, Kent. Wells Fargo already laid
off a few hundred mortgage bankers back
in February as a part of an effort to
scale back its home lending business.
But the company says now there are no
layoffs connected to this latest move,
and that it remains committed to
the Twin Cities as an important
market and employment center.