Walmart Shedding Up to 500 HQ Jobs

In yet another round of company restructuring, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is slashing 400 to 500 jobs at its Bentonville, Ark., headquarters this week, according to a published report.

Affected employees work in the marketing, human resources, merchandising, real estate, logistics and finance divisions, Bloomberg reported, citing Walmart as the source. The laid-off employees will have 60 days to find a new role. The news follows earlier reports that the mega-retailer was planning to eliminate more than 1,000 jobs, mostly at its home office.

Also this month, Walmart revealed plans to close 63 Sam’s Club locations – some without advance notice – with as many as 12 slated to be converted to ecommerce fulfillment centers, while raising its associates’ starting hourly wage, and offering workers a one-time bonus and new maternity and parental benefits. Bloomberg earlier reported that the company was tweaking its management team to remove about 3,500 store co-manager positions in favor of 1,700 lower-paid assistant store managers.

Bloomberg described Walmart CEO Doug McMillon as eager to reduce corporate expenses so as to better compete with the likes of Amazon. “We’ve been looking at our structure for some time as we explore ways to operate more effectively,” the company noted in a statement. “Those efforts continue. We’re committed to handling every transition smoothly and ensuring everyone is treated as fairly and respectfully as possible.”