Nordstrom will shutter its Canadian operations.
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Layoffs have started trickling into the retail sector, primarily impacting corporate employees.
Nordstrom, Walmart, Poshmark, and more have made job cuts since the start of the year.
Still, few retailers are laying off store employees as the “labor hoarding” trend continues in 2023.
Layoffs have officially arrived in the retail sector.
Since the start of 2023, major retailers ranging from department stores to direct-to-consumer brands have cut staff, the latest swing in a sector that’s been hit hard by labor challenges and inflation.
Most of the cuts so far have impacted corporate retail employees. At a store level, many retailers are actually holding tighter to workers than usual, even seasonal employees, in a practice economists call “labor hoarding.” Still, less than three months into the year, over a dozen companies have already announced layoffs impacting hundreds, sometimes thousands of employees.
Here are the retailers who have announced layoffs in 2023:
Gopuff: The delivery startup laid off more than 100 employees, or about 2% of its workforce, Bloomberg reported. It’s Gopuff’s third round of layoffs in the last year.
Zulily: The online retailer cut an undisclosed number of its nearly 2,000 corporate employees in an effort to trim expenses, Puget Sound Business Journal reported.
Nordstrom: The company is shuttering is Canadian operations by late June, citing no realistic path to profitability. About 2,500 employees will be cut as a result.
Poshmark: Roughly two months after being acquired by South Korean web firm Naver, Poshmark laid off less than 2% of its US workforce. Its global workforce totals over 800, according to the company’s LinkedIn page.
Walmart: The big box store chain is closing two stores in Portland, Oregon, resulting in 480 layoffs, according to documents filed with the state. The company is also closing three tech hubs in Texas, Oregon, and California and offering those employees the option to relocate to its Arkansas headquarters or accept a severance package
The RealReal, founded in 2011, sells secondhand luxury clothing.
Brian Ach/Invision for The RealReal/AP Images
The RealReal: The luxury consignment company cut 230 employees, about 7% of its workforce.
Lidl: Around 200 US-based corporate employees were let go from the German grocery chain.
Neiman Marcus: The high-end department store cut 5% of staff amid a “strategic realignment to accelerate high value luxury customer growth.”
REI: 167 corporate employees were laid off from the outdoors retailer in February,
Source:: Business Insider