US-based retail giant Walmart has confirmed the initiation of around 200 corporate job cuts as part of a restructuring effort, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has reported.
In a filing, the company reported that its US workforce figure totalled nearly 1.6 million, including more than 100,000 management and professional workers.
Company spokesperson Anne Hatfield did not disclose the numbers of workers that would be affected or which divisions have experienced cuts.
Citing insiders, the WSJ reported that notifications were being sent to Walmart employees at its head office in Bentonville, Arkansas, as well as other corporate offices of the restructuring.
A source added that Walmart will continue to hire in areas such as e-commerce, health and wellness, advertisement sales and the supply chain.
Bloomberg quoted an email statement from Walmart as saying: “We’re updating our structure and evolving select roles to provide clarity and better position the company for a strong future.
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By GlobalData“At the same time, we’re further investing in key areas and creating new roles to support our growing number of services for our customers, suppliers and the business community.”
News of the job cuts comes after Walmart lowered its second-quarter and full-year profit outlook for the fiscal year 2023 (FY23) due to the rising costs of food and fuel.
The company anticipates a consolidated net sales growth of around 7.5% for the full year.
The revised outlook is primarily due to pricing actions aimed to improve inventory levels at Walmart and Sam’s Club stores in the US, as well as the retailer’s mix of sales.
Walmart joins several other US-based companies, including Tesla, Netflix and Google, in cutting jobs due to the impact of higher interest rates, inflation and an energy crisis in Europe.
Bloomberg noted that automobile company Ford is also reportedly considering cutting up to 8,000 jobs.
