Walmart let go of almost 200 corporate employees on Wednesday amid the economic downturn and rising inflation, according to a person familiar with the development. The company said in a statement that these layoffs are a part of updating its structure. Last month, the firm slashed its Q2 and yearly profit guidance and said people are spending less on items like electronics due to inflation.
The retail giant employs over 1.6 million people across its stores and supply chain in the U.S — those workers were not affected by these layoffs. A report from Bloomberg noted that job cuts affected people in merchandising and last-mile delivery.
“We’re updating our structure and evolving select roles to provide clarity and better position the company for a strong future. At the same time, we’re further investing in key areas like e-commerce, technology, health & wellness, supply chain, and advertising sales and creating new roles to support our growing number of services for our customers, suppliers, and the business community,” a Walmart spokesperson said in a statement.
While the company said it’s creating new roles in e-commerce and technology, it didn’t specify how many roles will be created.
The rising inflation has also affected other retail giants like Target and Best Buy with both cutting down profit targets in the past few months. In its June earnings result, Amazon revealed that it cut its global workforce by nearly 100,000 people accounting for an almost a 6% reduction.
Walmart’s layoff news comes just before the government is set to release data about job creation for July. Analysts estimate that the data will show an addition of 250,000 nonfarm payroll jobs last month, lower than 372,000 jobs added in June.
