Macy's layoffs 2024: Department store to lay off more than 2,000 employees, close 5 stores

Department store chain Macy's is planning to lay off about 13% of its corporate staff and close five stores in an effort to trim costs and redirect spending to improve the customer experience.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the news on Thursday, adding that the job cuts will total about 2,350 positions, or about 3.5% of Macy's overall workforce excluding seasonal hires.

The Journal, citing a memo sent to employees late Thursday, reported that Macy's plans to add more automation to its supply chain and to outsource some roles, although the memo didn't specify which jobs would be outsourced.

The company also plans to reduce management layers to speed up decision-making, according to The Journal.

The Journal also reported that Macy's will be investing in areas that affect consumers, such as adding visual display managers to enhance the look of stores and upgrading digital functions to make online shopping more seamless.

Macy's did not immediately respond to a USA TODAY request for comment.

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Layoffs also hitting other industries

Macy's joins other large companies across multiple sectors to recently announce layoffs.

Google has announced two rounds of layoffs in the past two weeks, eliminating several hundred roles in its advertising sales, hardware and central engineering teams. The layoffs also affected employees who work on Google Assistant, the company's voice-activated software product.

Amazon's livestreaming platform, Twitch, also announced earlier this month that it was cutting 35% of its workforce. Amazon is also cutting jobs in its Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios divisions, and other tech companies, like Discord and Duolingo, have announced layoffs to start the year.

General Motors announced in December that it would lay off 1,314 employees at two factories in Michigan in connection to ending production of vehicles.

NBC News also recently announced it was laying off several dozen employees.