NEW YORK (AP) - Wal-Mart is cutting about 7,000 back-office store jobs over the next few months as it centralizes its invoice and accounting departments, expanding a test it announced in June.
The nation's largest private employer said Thursday the cuts will take place in all its namesake stores, confirming the move reported by the Wall Street Journal. The goal is to get workers out of the backrooms and onto the selling floors as Wal-Mart faces increasing competition from online leader Amazon.com.
Wal-Mart said it believes most of the displaced workers will find new jobs involving direct contact with shoppers, and the change was not a downsizing move. The customer-facing jobs would include positions like working in the online pickup department or as pharmacy technicians.
The company said it was too soon to be specific about wage levels for the displaced workers. Spokeswoman Deisha Barnett said it would depend on what new positions they obtained. "It will be guided by the roles that will be available and the roles that associates choose to go after," Barnett said.
But Making Change at Wal-Mart, a campaign backed by the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union, said displaced employees who do get store jobs will likely take pay cuts, calling the back-office jobs "some of the better positions at Wal-Mart."