Walmart, the world’s largest retailer and America’s biggest private employer, is cutting hundreds of corporate jobs and asking most of its remote workers to return to the office. Citing people familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported that Walmart is also asking workers in three tech hubs to relocate.
Employees in smaller offices in Dallas, Atlanta, and Toronto are being asked to transition to larger hubs like Walmart’s corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. Walmart runs around 4,600 stores in the U.S. and employed approximately 2.1 million associates at the start of the year, according to regulatory filings.
The company had said in April 2023 that it sees 65% of its stores to be serviced via automation by 2026. Since then, Walmart has been downsizing, and in December 2022, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon told investors that automated warehouses will eliminate a lot of time that workers spend in sorting merchandise.
Walmart has announced the closure of eight stores in 2024, including a Bay Area store in May and a Neighborhood Market in Milwaukee. Layoff notices were filed with the state of Wisconsin and California, following the closure of four stores in California, one in Maryland, and one in Ohio.
Earlier this month, Walmart also announced that it will close all 51 of its health clinics and shut down its virtual healthcare operations.
