Medtronic, a major medical device company, is planning to cut jobs in the coming months.

The company, which has its executive headquarters based in Minneapolis, declined to specify how many employees will be affected.

Erika Winkels, Medtronic’s senior director of corporate public relations, told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that certain employees started to learn about the layoffs on Tuesday.

“Medtronic continually evaluates its operations and aligns our resources with our highest strategic priorities. To better position the company for future growth, we announced today that we intend to reduce our full-time global workforce in the coming months, with certain employee notifications beginning today,” Winkels said in a statement.

“These decisions are never easy, and we’re taking great care to treat all impacted employees with dignity and respect. Medtronic will follow fair, consistent processes and provide comprehensive transitional resources to impacted employees during this time,” the statement added.

However, Winkels didn’t respond to an inquiry about any early retirement or severance packages for affected employees.

Louis Johnston, an economics professor at the College of Saint Benedict, says layoffs have been a growing trend, citing increased interest rates and the pandemic aftermath.

“During the pandemic, governments started increasing amounts they were spending on health care and reduced a lot of the conditions and things like that, now they’re tightening back up again. So, health care in general and medical devices in particular are bracing for lower sales or at least a slowdown in sales due to that tightening government spending,” Johnston said.

Minnesota’s Department of Employment and Economic Development told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that it hasn’t yet received a notice from Medtronic about any upcoming layoffs in the state. However, a California notice filed on March 29 states that Medtronic is closing its Sunnyvale, Calif., facility and laying off all 59 employees between now and the end of September.

A fact sheet from Medtronic’s website says the company employs more than 95,000 people across more than 150 countries.