Walmart laid off nearly 200 of the company’s employees on Wednesday amid an 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 an update to its structure. Last month, the company Q2 and annual profit guidance cuts and said people are spending less on items like electronics due to inflation.
The retail giant employs more than 1.6 million employees across its stores and supply chain in the US – those workers are not affected by these layoffs. A report from Bloomberg note that the job cuts affect last-mile merchants and deliveries.
“We are updating our structure and developing select roles to bring 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 ad sales, and create new roles to support digital our growing range of services to customers, suppliers and businesses,” a Walmart spokesperson said in a statement.
While the company says it is creating new roles in e-commerce and technology, it did not specify how many roles will be created.
Rising inflation has also affected other retail giants such as Target and Best buy including the profit target cuts over the past few months. In its June earnings results, Amazon revealed that it has cut global workforce of nearly 100,000 people accounted for a decrease of nearly 6%.
News of Walmart’s layoffs comes just before the government is set to release job creation data for July. Analyst estimate that the data will show 250,000 nonfarm paid jobs added last month, down from 372,000 jobs added in June.
