Walmart cutting or relocating about 1,000 corporate jobs

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Walmartis cutting or relocating jobs as the world's largest retailer undertakes an effort to simplify its operating structure.

The Wall Street Journalon Tuesday reported that Walmart is laying off or relocating roughly 1,000 corporate workers. according to people familiar with the situation.

"We've made changes to simplify how the work is organized, make ownership clearer,. better align roles to the work and skills we need going forward," Walmart head of global technology Suresh Kumar and head of global AI acceleration Daniel Danker said in a memo to employees reviewed by FOX Business.

Kumar. Danker said in the memo that the company is shifting from organizing separately for Walmart U.S., Sam's Clubs and its international markets to building its strategy on a unified, shared platform.

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Walmart is laying off or relocating about 1,000 corporate staff, according to reports.(Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The executives said that in some cases they've had "different teams working on similar problems,". that staff who've been affected by the changes are able toapply for open roleswithin the company.

According to a Wall Street Journal report. many of the affected staff have been asked to relocate to Walmart's Bentonville, Arkansas, orNorthern Californiaoffices.

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The company has regularly pared back some of its corporate staff in recent years, consolidating business units. centralizing operations at some of its regional hubs and its headquarters in Arkansas.

Walmart's new CEO, John Furner, is pursuing a tech-focused strategy to attract more higher-income shoppers. also build its marketplace and delivery businesses.

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Walmart CEO John Furner is leading a digital transformation of the retail giant.(Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images/FOX Business)

The company is thelargest private employerin the U.S. with about 1.6 million employees, of whom about 92% are hourly workers. It has about 2.1 million workers worldwide, according to a filing as of Jan. 31.

Walmart became thefirst retailerto ever reach $1 trillion in market value in February. has been focusing on a digital transformation to better compete with rivals like Amazon and Costco.

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Reuters contributed to this report.

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