Walmart (NYSE:WMT) has announced a series of job cuts that will put thousands of workers unemployed.
The retailer has revealed that 7,000 employees will lose their jobs, most of which are located in the West Coast. This includes workers in the company’s accounting and invoicing positions mostly.
The job cuts will apply to workers in all of Walmart’s 4,600 locations around the country. Although this is a large number, it only makes up a small percentage of the approximately 1.5 million workers in the U.S.
Part of the company’s restructuring plan is aimed at having more employees in Walmart aisles helping out customers in a direct manner. The move is also an extension of the retailer’s June announcement to cut positions in its offices, while simultaneously adding more staff on the floor during peak shopping hours.
The megastore is also shelling out $2.7 billion to train its workforce in these areas, while raising the prices of its minimum hourly pay to $10 an hour.
Walmart tested this initiative at 500 stores, most of which are out West, where it cut three administrative positions in each store and replaced them with floor jobs to see how this affected its business.
Customer satisfaction has been at an all-time high for the retailer lately, increasing in 79 consecutive weeks. The company also announced that is online business has been booming lately, especially in its most recent quarter.
WMT stock is up 1.6% Thursday.
