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Walmart will eliminate about 1,000 corporate jobs at the end of January, according to an article from The Wall Street Journal.
Employees will lose jobs in the company’s human resources, technology and e-commerce departments, the article says.
In a memo released to employees Tuesday, CEO Doug McMillon announced that the company’s chief information officer Karenann Terrell will leave the company Feb. 24, but he did not say who would replace her, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Walmart has not publicly confirmed the corporate layoffs, but spokesperson Greg Hitt says the company “continually looks at our corporate structure,” The Wall Street Journal reports.
“We are always looking for ways to operate more efficiently and effectively,” Hitt says in the article.
The layoffs follow two years of big changes for the company. In 2016, Walmart for the first time closed a large number of stores. The giant retailer shut down 269 locations, including all of its small-format Walmart Express stores. The company also cut back dramatically on the number of stores it planned to open and emphasized growing its e-commerce presence.
In September, the company had plans to eliminate 7,000 in-store office jobs, The Wall Street Journal reports.
“The retailer wants those employees working with shoppers, not in backrooms, say company executives. Centralizing or automating most of their current tasks is more efficient,” the article says.
In October 2015, The Wall Street Journal reported that Walmart had plans to reduce its staff by 450 employees at its headquarters, citing a drop in sales and changes in retail as reasons for the cuts.
Walmart’s current financial situation is healthier than many other big-box retailers, according to USA Today. The company’s most recent financial results show a small increase in revenue and sales for the third quarter, USA Today says.
