Walmart confirmed Wednesday (Aug. 3) that the company is restructuring some of its departments within the corporate structure, which will result in the loss of about 200 jobs in Bentonville and other corporate offices.
“We are updating our structure and developing select roles to provide clarity and better position the company for a strong future. At the same time, we are investing further in key areas such as e-commerce, technology, health and wellness, supply chain and advertising sales and creating new roles to support our growing number of services to our customers, suppliers and the business community,” Anne Hatfield, Walmart corporate spokeswoman, told Talk Business & Politics.
Hatfield said the exact number of jobs being eliminated has not been announced, but it is small compared to the number of jobs the retailer continues to add in other areas of the business. Walmart also declined to identify which areas of the business the cuts are taking place. Sources close to Walmart said the retailer’s real estate division, food and toy merchandising areas reported layoffs, along with several data analytics positions, last-mile delivery and customer service jobs also being eliminated. this week.
Walmart’s hiring site showed the retail giant has more than 700 corporate jobs open in Bentonville as of Aug. 3. Those jobs ranged from accounting and finance, trading, real estate and marketing among other areas within the company.
The news of Walmart’s corporate layoffs comes after the company recently warned of lower revenue this year in part from inventory overloads in apparel and general merchandise as consumer shopping behaviors shifted earlier in the year amid rising prices for food and basic fuels.
Other companies in several business sectors began announcing layoffs in the past two months. Dallas-based 7-Eleven announced 880 job cuts, JP Morgan in June announced about 1,000 job cuts in the bank’s mortgage division.
The number of job openings fell to 10.7 million on the last business day of June, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on August 2. Total hiring and separations were little changed at 6.4 million and 5.9 million, respectively. Within divisions, departures (4.2 million) and layoffs and layoffs (1.3 million) were little changed.
