Lowe’s Reducing Its Workforce

Lowe’s has plans for laying off and changing job descriptions for thousands of people in its workforce, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Lowe’s employs more than 285,000 workers, and will be cutting the positions of less than 3,000 of them “as the home-improvement retailer tries to adapt to shifting shopping habits,” The Wall Street Journal article reports.

Lowe’s Reducing Its Workforce

In addition, the company will move other employees who have “back-of-house responsibilities” into customer service roles to assist shoppers directly in stores, the article says.

Lowe’s net earnings took a hit in the third quarter of 2016, failing to perform as well as the company projected. Net earnings were $379 million, the company reported in November. In contrast, the company’s earnings were $1.2 billion in the second quarter.

“Our third-quarter operating results were below our expectations due to slower sales in the first two months of the quarter,” says Robert A. Niblock, chairman, president and CEO.

by: Kate Klein

Source: Hardware Retailing, January 2017