Business briefs: PepsiCo to cut 3,300 jobs, close 6 plants

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NEW YORK — PepsiCo Inc. is cutting jobs and closing factories to give it some “breathing room” to navigate the volatility that has permeated all corners of the global economy.

The maker of Pepsi-Cola, Doritos and Sun Chips said Tuesday it plans to eliminate 3,300 jobs and shutter six plants in an effort to save $1.2 billion over three years. It plans to use the savings primarily to revive lagging U.S. soft drink sales.

The job cuts amount to roughly 1.8 percent of PepsiCo’s global work force of about 185,000 employees, and will affect managerial and factory jobs both in and outside the U.S. Most will be eliminated in the coming months, Chief Financial Officer Richard Goodman said.

The nation’s second-largest drink maker — which also owns the Frito-Lay, Tropicana and Quaker brands — said the cuts will generate savings of $350 million to $400 million in 2009.

U of Iowa students get to meet with Buffett

IOWA CITY, Iowa — A group of University of Iowa MBA students are set to meet with Warren Buffett, the so-called Oracle of Omaha, during a visit to Nebraska.

The group of 27 full-time MBA students are headed to Omaha on Friday and will meet with Buffett, the chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway. They will join students from five other universities.

The visit will include a tour of the Nebraska Furniture Mart — one of the many businesses owned by Berkshire Hathaway — and a 90-minute question-and-answer session with Buffett. After that, he’ll treat the students to lunch at Piccolo Pete’s steak house.

Poverty-level jobs on the rise, report says

NEW YORK — The number of jobs paying a poverty-level wage increased by 4.7 million between 2002 and 2006, according to a new analysis of census data released Tuesday.

A report by The Working Poor Families Project, based on an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data, found conditions worsened for the working poor in the four years ending in 2006, as the number of low-income working families increased by 350,000. The project is funded by the Annie E. Case, Ford, Joyce and C.S. Mott Foundations.

The report defines a low-income working family as those earning less than twice the Census definition of poverty. In 2006, the most recent year for available data, a family of four earning $41,228 or less qualified as a low-income family.

The number of jobs with pay below the poverty threshold increased to 29.4 million, or 22 percent of all jobs, in 2006 from 24.7 million, or 19 percent of all jobs, in 2002.

— From wire reports