KINGSPORT, Tenn. (WJHL) — Eastman has revealed plans to trim its global workforce by approximately 7% as part of a cost-cutting strategy, according to a recent presentation to shareholders.

The presentation highlighted Eastman’s aim to slash expenses by about $175 million from 2025 through 2026. A significant part of this initiative involves a 7% reduction in their global staff “throughout the year.”

Eastman anticipates achieving this downsizing by the close of 2025, aligning its organizational structure with current market demands while still prioritizing investments in key innovative platforms, as noted in the presentation.

Inquiries from News Channel 11 prompted a response from an Eastman spokesperson regarding the workforce cuts.

The spokesperson indicated that Eastman is also implementing cost reductions across various areas, including contracted services, materials expenditure, optimizing asset footprint, and utilizing digital solutions.

Overall, Eastman projects that the total number of eliminated positions will be fewer than 1,000 worldwide by the end of the year.

The spokesperson also noted that the majority of those reductions will be done through “retirement and natural attrition, limited hiring and limited backfilling of vacated positions.”

At the start of 2025, Eastman’s workforce was made up of roughly 14,000 employees.

The entire statement can be read below:

In the presentation you reference, Eastman announced that the company is reducing an additional $175 million in costs from 2025-2026, which includes reduction of contracted services, material spend, asset footprint optimization, leveraging digital solutions, yield and energy improvements, as well as labor costs. 

As a normal course of business, and especially in a difficult economic environment like we’re currently facing, we regularly assess our business structure and capabilities to drive effectiveness and efficiencies in the business, and throughout the year may make adjustments to enable Eastman’s competitiveness in our markets. The labor reduction referenced has been underway globally throughout the year. By around year-end, we expect the total number of reduced positions to be less than 1,000, or approximately ~7% of the global workforce, with the majority of the reductions being achieved through retirement and natural attrition, limited hiring and limited backfilling of vacated positions. 

Our headcount at the beginning of the year was approximately 14,000.

Thanks for reaching out and have a great weekend.

Tracy Kilgore Addington, Eastman Corporate Communications Manager