Wal-Mart Cutting Hundreds of Corporate Jobs

Wal-Mart is cutting hundreds of corporate jobs this month in an effort to cut costs as it spends billions to improve its e-commerce operations. The cuts fell broadly over the past few days on the international side of Wal-Mart’s business, as well as its technology group and at its warehouse chain Sam’s Club, according to people familiar with the matter. Doug McMillon, Wal-Mart's CEO, said the company’s efforts to compete with Amazon.com would mean cutting costs to achieve a new commitment to low-cost operations — including layoffs.

Total Retail’s Take: This move adds to Wal-Mart’s string of job cuts over the last year. The retailer cut about 1,000 corporate jobs already this year, including about 200 in its e-commerce division. In total, Wal-Mart has eliminated roughly 18,000 jobs since early last year, however, many of the affected employees have been reassigned, a company spokesperson said. Wal-Mart isn't the only retailer cutting jobs in 2017. Nearly 30,000 retail workers lost their jobs in March, leading to the worst two months for the industry’s job creation since December 2009. Hopefully with the increasing shift to online shopping, potential job losses at brick-and-mortar stores can be offset with new jobs in warehouses and in other parts of the order fulfillment and delivery process.