Wal-Mart plans to cut hundreds of jobs before end of January

By Trisha Cerdena | Jan 11, 2017 05:55 AM EST

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is planning to eliminate hundreds of jobs before January ends. The major retailer aims to cut work opportunities both at its headquarters and regional offices that support their stores.

Cutting these jobs will have an impact on several departments, including the company’s human resources department. Such team, which is comprised of a large number of employees, have tasks that can be managed by outside consultants, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

"As we've previously shared, we are always looking for ways to operate more efficiently and effectively,” Wal-Mart Stores spokesman Greg Hitt said to Fortune.

However, no official announcements have not yet been made despite their recent corporate structure planning.

The Arkansas-based retailer already mentioned in September that it plans to eliminate 7,000 jobs, majority of which will be for invoicing and accounting work among its U.S. stores. Such step is a part of the program earlier announced in June.

"As we've previously shared, we are always looking for ways to operate more efficiently and effectively. While we continually look at our corporate structure, we have not made any announcements,” Wal-Mart said in its statement to CNBC.

The said program of Wal-Mart involves an investment worth $2.7 billion on workforce training programs along with salary increases that will push the minimum hourly wage to $10. These measures are believed to bring on improvements in employees’ services as well as an increase in sales.

Aside from their workforce, Wal-Mart has also set its sights on improving stores and increasing e-commerce sales. Such steps have already been associated with increasing growth among online sales and a smaller decline of earnings for Q3.

Similarly, Macy’s is already slashing 10,000 jobs and putting a close to 68 store this year. Almost 4,000 employees were also laid off by The Limited after all of its stores had been closed, although its official website remains available.

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