Walmart to cut jobs at headquarters, relocate hundreds of corporate workers across the country

• Walmart is laying off and transferring hundreds of its corporate employees.
  

• The company is relocating remote workers and those at its Dallas, Toronto and Atlanta offices.
  

• The discounter is currently building a new headquarters in its hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas.

Walmart is laying off hundreds of corporate workers across the country as it relocates many employees to its Arkansas headquarters.

The big-box retailer confirmed the layoffs and relocations in a memo sent to employees Tuesday.

In the memo, Chief People Officer Donna Morris said the move is meant to bring more of its employees back to the office after the Covid-19 pandemic. The company brought corporate employees back to its Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters in February 2022.

Now, she said, Walmart is taking that a step further. The majority of employees working remotely and in offices in Dallas, Atlanta and Toronto have been asked to relocate. Most will be moved to the company’s Arkansas headquarters, but some will also relocate to offices in the San Francisco Bay Area or Hoboken, New Jersey, she said.

The layoffs are the latest cost cut for the discounter. In late April, Walmart announced it would shutter 51 health clinics across Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Texas. The new clinics, which offered doctor, dentist and therapy appointments, were part of Walmart Health, a broad effort by the discounter to bring lower prices to the health-care industry. It had opened the health clinics next to its big-box stores, but said in an announcement on its website that the business was not financially sustainable.

Walmart is the nation’s largest private employer with about 1.6 million employees, most of whom work at its stores across the country.

Walmart has another reason to bring more employees to Bentonville: It is building a nearly 350-acre campus there. The major development, which is well underway, includes 12 office buildings, along with parking lots, a hotel and other amenities. The campus’ first few buildings have already opened, including a fitness center and a day care.

Arkansas: Walmart to cut 450 jobs at its headquarters

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. CEO Doug McMillon said 450 people will be laid off at the company’s headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., according to a memo sent to all Wal-Mart staff today.

“After months of evaluation, we’ve concluded there is an opportunity to better position our Home Office teams to move with speed and purpose,” McMillon wrote in the memo. The company is at “an important time in our history,” he said. “This in part means pulling back in some areas and investing in others.”

Laid-off employees will receive 60 days of pay, plus two weeks of pay for every year of employment with the company, said a Wal-Mart (WMT) spokesman. Job search assistance will be available for those who want it, he said.