By Martinne Geller

Soft drinks and snack maker PepsiCo Inc. said its fiscal third-quarter profit rose 9 percent, in part on cost-control efforts, even as revenue dropped on weak beverage sales.

PepsiCo Chief Executive Indra Nooyi said Thursday she is not concerned about the potential for Moody's to downgrade the company's credit rating if it succeeds in acquiring its two largest bottlers Pepsi Botting Group and PepsiAmericas.

Unemployment hit 8.9 percent in April and some predict that number could climb to over 10 percent in 2009 as major companies streamline operations to combat the recession.  But how far can this streamlining really go? For many companies, revenues hinge on worker productivity, and for most operations, per-worker profits and revenues are many multiples of average employee salaries. The measure of revenue per employee also helps shed light on a firm's money-making efficiency and likelihood it will retain jobs. The best companies require  the least number of workers to make the most money.