SEATTLE, WA — Starbucks has filed a new notice with Washington state listing 224 job separations tied to its Seattle headquarters, though the company says the paperwork does not mark another round of layoffs. The filing was submitted Thursday under the state’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, system and covers employees who work at or report to the company’s headquarters at 2401 Utah Ave.
The notice comes as Starbucks keeps moving through a corporate restructuring that has already produced earlier job cuts this year. According to the company, the latest filing is connected to changes already in motion, including roles affected by organizational shifts and employees who chose not to relocate to Nashville, Tennessee.
What The Filing Says
Starbucks said roughly 104 of the affected positions stem from organizational changes linked to restructuring announced in May. The remaining 120 separations involve employees who were offered a move to the company’s Nashville office but declined to relocate. The company said workers who accepted relocation are not being separated.
In a statement to KOMO News, a Starbucks global communications representative said the filing reflects work already underway in the company’s global support organization. The representative said the group tied to coffeehouse design and development followed a different timetable because a new leader was hired in April and needed time to evaluate the organization.
Who It Affects
The WARN notice says the first separations are expected Oct. 19, with all of them completed by Nov. 1. Starbucks said affected employees are receiving 60 days’ notice and that the terminations will be permanent. The filing also says the workers are not represented by a union and do not have bumping rights.
The positions listed span several corporate functions, including managers, program and project managers, engineers, application developers, real estate staff and designers. The notice also names store design leads, store designers, systems analysts, software quality assurance employees and technical product managers. Starbucks said the planned action involves the relocation and/or contracting out of company operations or employee positions.
What Comes Next
This is the latest in a series of workforce reductions tied to Starbucks’ restructuring. About three months earlier, the company filed a separate WARN notice covering 252 employees tied administratively to its Seattle support center. Starbucks said that May filing also included some remote workers around the country who reported to Seattle-based managers, and those separations were expected to start July 17 and continue through Feb. 1, 2027.
The new notice was signed by Sara Kelly, Starbucks’ executive vice president and chief partner officer, and sent to Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson and King County Executive Girmay Zahilay. Starbucks said the changes are meant to reshape operations while keeping the customer-facing coffeehouse experience centered on what it calls the “Third Place,” a welcoming space outside home and work.
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