Walmart is laying off 568 employees in California as part of its previously announced cutbacks, according to filings with the state.
The layoffs, effective Aug. 9, include 180 employees in Sunnyvale and 388 in San Bruno. Walmart was previously reported to have been planning to make “hundreds” of layoffs, but the exact number and location of the cuts had not been disclosed. It was unclear if the layoffs planned for California represented the full extent of the previously reported cutbacks.
The “vast majority” of the affected workers will have an opportunity to stay with the company and relocate to other offices, a company spokesperson told Supermarket News. The spokesperson said the state filings represent the maximum number of workers affected by the changes, but Walmart is “working closely with individuals on their specific paths forward, which include in most cases a new opportunity with Walmart.”
In an email to employees published in several media outlets, the company said the number of layoffs was “small in percentage” and were necessitated by changes made in some parts of the company’s business.
The letter also confirmed previous reports that the company was asking the majority of its employees who are working remotely, as well as the majority of employees in its Dallas, Atlanta, and Toronto Global Tech offices, to relocate. Most relocations will be to the company’s home office in Bentonville, Ark., but some will also be to larger hub offices in the San Francisco Bay Area and Hoboken, N.J., the company said in the letter.
The relocations to Bentonville come as the company continues to construct a new, 350-acre corporate headquarters campus there, which is scheduled to open in phases throughout next year. The company said the new campus will be integrated with the community and will include a child care center, a hotel, a 360,000-square-foot health and fitness center, and miles of walking and biking trails.
The layoffs in California follow Walmart’s recent announcement that it plans to shutter all 51 of its Walmart Health centers, but it was not clear if the layoffs were related to that decision. Most of the Walmart Health centers were in Florida and Georgia.
Earlier this year, the company also announced that it was closing a technology lab called Store No. 8, and last year, the company said it was closing three other technology centers.
