Home Depot has confirmed that it is carrying out a “very small number” of layoffs after a difficult first quarter that saw its revenue and profits decline from a pandemic-era surge in the home improvement business.
The jobs cut were all in “non-store roles,” and were eliminated “due to changes in our business,” said a spokeswoman for the giant Vinings-based retailer. She declined to specify how many people were being let go from the company, the locations of affected workers or the types of jobs they held.
“I can’t get more precise than ‘a very small number,’” she said.
Employees who are being cut are receiving “separation packages, transitional benefits and job placement support,” she said. “We continue to be optimistic about the long-term opportunity in home improvement, and we’ll continue to invest in our customers, our associates and the business.”
The cuts were first reported by 11Alive news, citing Home Depot employees who had posted about the layoffs on LinkedIn.
The 45-year-old company has nearly 500,000 employees and more than 2,300 retail stores, the vast majority of them in the United States
Home Depot, which saw a dramatic surge in business in the first two years of the pandemic, has in recent months ratcheted back its expectations. The company reported sales of $37.3 billion for the first fiscal quarter of this year, down 4.2% from the same three months a year earlier.
Net earnings for the first quarter $3.9 billion compared with net earnings of $4.2 billion in the same period of fiscal 2022.
Company officials said they expected sales through the year to be 2% to 5% lower than they were during the previous fiscal year.
Much of the company’s business comes from renovations and improvements to homes, either by do-it-yourselfers or by contractors hired by homeowners. But expenditures on that kind of work will drop in coming months, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.
Spending on remodeling faces “headwinds” from high interest rates, as well as a sluggish housing market in which fewer people are changing homes, said Abbe Will, associate project director of the center’s Remodeling Futures Program, in a statement. “Annual spending on homeowner improvements and repairs is expected to decrease.”
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