Wal-Mart to Cut 7,000 Back-Office Store Jobs
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to cut thousands of back-office positions around the country, a sign that the retailer’s effort to make its cavernous stores more efficient is also changing the face of its workforce.
The largest private employer in the U.S. is eliminating about 7,000 store accounting and invoicing positions over the next several months. The jobs are mostly held by long-term employees, often some of the highest paid hourly workers in stores. The retailer wants those employees working with shoppers, not in backrooms, say company executives. Centralizing or automating most of their current tasks is more efficient, they say.
The jobs are coveted as a rare desk job in retail. “You are not running around the store on your feet all day” and receive decent pay, said a Wal-Mart store accounting employee who earns about $13 an hour, or $27,000 a year. “Everybody wants to get in there. The jobs never open up,” said this person, who has worked at the store for nine years.
The back-office cuts to Wal-Mart’s 4,600 U.S. stores is a sign that retail workers—one of the largest employee cohorts in America—face big changes as their employers spend heavily to compete with Amazon.com Inc. and grab foot traffic from other chains.
The positions Wal-Mart is eliminating manage an individual store’s daily cash flow or process claims from manufacturers delivering goods directly to stores, among other tasks. Starting early next year, much of that work will be handled by a central office or new money-counting “cash recycler” machines in stores. Wal-Mart tested the change in about 500 stores earlier this year.
The company believes most displaced employees will find customer-facing roles, said Deisha Barnett, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman. “We’ve seen many make smooth transitions during the pilot,” she said. Employees facing cuts could see their salaries go up or down in a new position, she said.
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