Walmart is laying off about 200 corporate workers on Wednesday due to the economic downturn and rising inflation, according to a person familiar with the development. These layoffs are part of restructuring, the company said in a statement. Last month, the company cut its Q2 and annual profit guidance and said people are spending less on things like electronics because of rising prices.
The retail giant employs more than 1.6 million people in its stores and supply chain in the U.S. — those workers were not affected by these layoffs. A report from Bloomberg pointed to job cuts for people in freight and last-mile delivery.
We are modernizing our structure and enhancing select roles to better position the company for a stronger future. At the same time, we are investing in key areas such as e-commerce, technology, health and safety, supply chain and ad sales and creating new roles to support growing services for our customers, suppliers and the business. community,” a Walmart spokesperson said in a statement.
While the company said it is creating new roles in e-commerce and technology, it did not say how many roles would be created.
Rising inflation has weighed on other giants such as Target and Best Buy, both of which have cut profit targets in the past few months. In its June earnings call, Amazon said it had cut its global workforce by nearly 100,000 people, a 6% decline.
News of the Walmart layoffs comes just before the government is set to release job creation data for July. Analysts expected the data to show a gain of 250,000 nonfarm payroll jobs last month, down from 372,000 jobs added in June.
