Wal-Mart Cuts More Employees
NEW YORK (
) --
Wal-Mart
(WMT) - Get Report
, the nation's largest private employer, appears to be trying hard to shed that distinction, announcing today that it is letting go of hundreds of employees from its Arkansas headquarters.
Wal-Mart announced on Wednesday that it will cut 300 employees, mostly from its corporate support division, as a means of shedding overhead.
Last week, Wal-Mart revealed plans to reorganize its business by consolidating some of its U.S. operations. The company will combine its realty, store operations and logistics divisions, and it will reorganize operations into three geographic regions, each led by its own president.
Wal-Mart is also creating a new division called Global.com to oversee its e-commerce business.
This is the second round of layoffs Wal-Mart has announced since the beginning of the year. The company said in January that it will cut 11,200 employees from its Sam's Club chain. Instead, Wal-Mart will outsource these product demonstration positions to Shopper Events.
Wal-Mart does not foresee any charges related to today's announcement, but expects to incur a charge of 4 cents a share in the fourth quarter related to the Sam's Club layoffs.
Earlier today,
Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Wal-Mart to buy
, saying the company could see more cooperation in building stores in big cities.
The discounter is also benefiting from consumers still looking to spend less on household items, analyst David Schick, wrote in a note.
Already in 2010,
Macy's
(M) - Get Report
,
Home Depot
(HD) - Get Report
,
Borders
(BGP)
and
Verizon
(VZ) - Get Report
have also announced layoffs.
-- Reported by Jeanine Poggi in New York.
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>>Wal-Mart Poised to Outperform: Analyst
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