Trouble Coming To Walmart Nation?

Trouble Coming To Walmart Nation?

Not so much for Walmart shareholders after the company beat estimates late in the week helping the stock (WMT) to close on Friday 7.7 percent off its low for the week.  MarketWatch notes the big-box retailer was helped by automation.

WalMart

Walmart talked about the significance of automation in an April post on its corporate site.

“Smart assistants have huge potential to make busy stores run more smoothly, so Walmart has been pioneering new technologies to minimize the time an associate spends on the more mundane and repetitive tasks like cleaning floors or checking inventory on a shelf,” said Elizabeth Walker, from Walmart corporate affairs.  – MarketWatch, Aug 17th

Walmart Nation

We don’t know how this helps Walmart nation, however.  The company is the largest employer in many states throughout the country.

When excluding public administrative bodies, Walmart is the largest employer in 22 states.  – USA Today

largest-employers_jan26

Walmart is also the world’s largest private-sector employer.   The company has over 100k companies in its supply chain worldwide and according to its 2019 annual report,

As of the end of fiscal 2019, Walmart Inc. and our subsidiaries employed more than 2.2 million employees (“associates”) worldwide, with 1.5 million associates in the U.S. and 0.7 million associates internationally. Similar to other retailers, the Company has a large number of part-time, hourly or non-exempt associates. – Walmart 2019 Annual Report 

This compares to the 2018 Annual Report,

As of the end of fiscal 2018, Walmart Inc. and our subsidiaries employed approximately 2.3 million employees (“associates”) worldwide, with 1.5 million associates in the U.S. and 0.8 million associates internationally. Similar to other retailers, the Company has a large number of part-time, hourly or non-exempt associates. We believe our relationships with our associates are good and are continuing to improve. – Walmart 2018 Annual Report

Note the 100k year-to-year decline in employees, which appear to be the shrinking of their international workforce.   We couldn’t find any more current data on employment from the company’s quarterly reports.  Still looking, however……more here

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