Walmart laid off nearly 200 company 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 part of updating its structure. Last month, the company lowered its Q2 and annual earnings forecast and said that because of inflation, people are spending less on items like electronics.
The retail giant employs more than 1.6 million people across its stores and supply chain in the US — those workers were not affected by these layoffs. A report from Bloomberg noted that job losses are affecting people in merchandising and last-mile deliveries.
“We are updating our structure and evolving selected roles to provide clarity and better position the company for a strong future. At the same time, we are continuing to invest in key areas such as e-commerce, technology, health and wellness, supply chain and advertising sales, and are creating new roles to support our growing range of services for our customers, suppliers and the company’s community,” a Walmart spokesperson said in a statement. a statement.
While the company said it is creating new roles in e-commerce and technology, it has not specified how many roles will be created.
Rising inflation is also affecting other retail giants such as Target and Best Buy with both lowered profit targets in recent months. In its June earnings result, Amazon revealed that its global workforce of nearly 100,000 people good for a reduction of almost 6%.
Walmart’s layoff news comes just before the government releases job-creation data for July. analysts estimation That last month’s data will show an addition of 250,000 nonfarm payroll jobs, down from 372,000 jobs added in June.
