Oct. 1 (UPI) — CVS Health announced Tuesday that the pharmacy chain will lay off nearly 3,000 employees as part of cost-cutting efforts, but the job cuts will primarily be in “corporate positions,” the company said.

“We have launched a multi-year initiative to achieve $2 billion in cost savings by reducing costs and investing in technology to improve the way we work,” a company spokesperson wrote in a statement to multiple newsrooms.

The company said the affected positions were “primarily corporate functions,” said Mike DeAngelis, executive director of corporate communications at CVS.

These “cuts,” as he called them, “will have no impact on frontline jobs” at CVS stores, pharmacies or distribution centers, DeAngelis said.

The 2,900 CVS layoffs represent less than 1% of the chain’s workforce.

“Our industry faces ongoing disruption, regulatory pressures and changing customer needs and expectations,” DeAngelis said.

“That’s why it’s critical,” he continued, “that we remain competitive and achieve excellence.”

Laid-off CVS employees would receive severance pay and benefits, he said.

These new job cuts at CVS Health, which operates a network of pharmacies in the U.S., are in addition to approximately 5,000 additional layoffs announced in August last year.

In 2021, CVS Health closed approximately 900 stores between 2022 and this year. At the time, the closures represented nearly 10% of the company’s 10,000 locations at the time.

CVS joins another pharmacy chain, Walgreens, which in June announced plans to close a “significant portion” of its then “low-performing” 8,500 U.S. stores.