A company now announces massive layoffs in Texas and California, part of a plan that aims to reduce its corporate workforce in the US.
Walmart recently notified state employment officials in Texas and California that a total of over 2,000 people in those states could be let go as part of previously announced corporate job cuts, though the company anticipates the number to land in the hundreds.
The notices come after Walmart last week confirmed corporate layoffs, with Chief People Officer Donna Morris saying in a May 14 memo that business changes “will result in a reduction of several hundred campus roles”.
Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifications filed this week with Texas state employment officials indicate that up to 1,472 people who work two Dallas area Walmart sites may lose their jobs.
Walmart filed similar notices with California officials last week that up to 568 people may be let go from their employment in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.
Many of the 388 people who could be impacted at Walmart’s San Bruno, California, location work remotely from home, according to a memo submitted to the California Employment Development Department provided to Retail Dive. An additional 180 people work at Walmart in Sunnyvale under similar arrangements.
The facilities are not closing, Walmart said in its memo to California employment officials and “we do not expect all impacted associates to experience employment loss due to this event.
In the interest of providing appropriate notice, however, we are doing so at this time.
We anticipate that many impacted associates will relocate or continue employment in a new position within the company before the end of a paid transition period.”
Walmart employees assigned to the affected California offices who are unable or unwilling to relocate or don’t get another job with the company will be let go starting August 9.
The layoffs may continue into early next year.
In Texas, Walmart said it plans to close one facility entirely and part of another.
A Dallas location employing 1,266 will close completely. Another in Carrollton will see the portion of the site that operated as a call center close on Aug. 9, with 206 people potentially impacted.
The Texas-based workers may also get laid off starting in August if they can’t relocate or find another job with Walmart.
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Other Economy News Today
Applications for unemployment benefits now surge to new highs, a sign that the white-hot labor market is starting to cool off.
First-time applications for unemployment benefits rose last week to 231,000, the highest level since August, per CNN.
Thursday’s data also showed that the number of continuing claims, or applications from people who have filed for unemployment for at least one week, was 1.78 million.
That’s an increase of 17,000 from the prior week, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The latest numbers come less than a week after the monthly jobs report showed the US economy added just 175,000 positions in April, less than economists expected and a steep drop-off from prior months.
US employers have now added an average of 245,500 jobs per month, versus 2023’s 251,000-per-month average.
Still, hiring remains strong. Although the unemployment rate ticked up to 3.9% last month, it’s the 27th consecutive month that the jobless rate has held under 4%, matching a streak last seen in the late 1960s.
Weekly jobless claims data tends to be volatile but, while one week’s worth of data “does not a trend make,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at Fwdbonds.
“We can no longer be sure that calm seas lie ahead for the US economy if today’s weekly jobless claims are any indication.”
“Company layoffs are picking up, hinting at caution on the part of companies as they weigh the outlook for the second half of the year,” he wrote in a note Thursday.
The Federal Reserve has been battling inflation by raising its key lending rate in the hopes of slowing the economy.
While the labor market has so far resisted those efforts, remaining white hot for the past 18 months despite 11 rate hikes from the central bank, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last week that demand has “cooled from its extremely high level of a couple of years ago.”
Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Economics said in a note Thursday: “We’d need to see at least a month of elevated readings to convince us that the trend really has turned.”
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Also Read: A Giant Company Now Announces Unexpected Layoffs in Virginia
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