Walmart is cutting employees—what does it imply
If you work at Walmart or have a friend who does, this might be personal to you. The largest U.S. chain retailer, Walmart, is cutting thousands of jobs within its stores. The retailer is cutting some jobs as part of a major restructuring initiative aimed at simplifying how it runs its stores.
This isn’t about workers doing the job badly. Walmart executives claim the company is merely reconfiguring how it operates—and that some jobs are phasing out.
Which jobs are being cut?
Let’s dive in. Walmart is eliminating the Market Coordinator role at every U.S. store. This was a position that supported managers one level up from them, who oversaw clusters of stores in certain regions.
Also on the chopping block to be cut:
- Certain Academy Coach roles
- Certain Academy Coordinator jobs
They are part of Walmart Academy, the company’s in-house training program. They provide employees the chance to build their skills and contribute to future leadership.
But with Walmart reorganizing the way it runs the Academy, some of them will no longer be needed, especially at smaller or lower-traffic stores.
What happens to the workers losing their jobs?
There’s a little good news for some.
Walmart says that Market Coordinators and Academy Coaches will be offered “store-level Coach” roles in the region. Those are store leadership roles, so employees won’t necessarily be losing their jobs—just their job to do another thing.
But Academy Coordinators don’t receive a guarantee of new jobs. Instead, they’re being told to apply for other positions within Walmart if they want to stay with the company. This could translate to fewer options and less stability for this group of employees.
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Why is Walmart doing this?
Walmart describes the shift as having nothing to do with employee performance. Instead, the company wants to:
- Streamline its management structure
- Eliminate extra steps in communication
- Bend new tools and systems to better use
In a company memo, Cedric Clark, Walmart’s Executive VP of Store Operations, wrote that all of these changes are about speed and clarity. To him, the Market Coordinator position “no longer serves the same purpose” it did when it was created.
In brief, Walmart feels it can be more efficient with fewer layers of management.
Walmart Academy: Redesigning how employees are trained
Walmart is not just cutting jobs—it’s also changing the way its training program functions.
The company is moving away from a “one-size-fits-all” model. Instead of having every Academy location have the same number of staff, it will now decide how many coordinators or coaches it needs per location based on:
- How many people are being trained there
- How much traffic the store receives
- The size of the location in general
Therefore, in busier zones or larger stores, Walmart could add more positions. But in smaller stores, there are few positions being eliminated.
Walmart had over 200 Walmart Academy sites in 2021, so the layoffs will affect many individuals from different states.
Other Recent Layoffs at Walmart
It is not the first time Walmart has announced layoffs in 2025.
In May, Walmart restructured its global tech and U.S. operations personnel, impacting about 1,500 employees.
In February, Walmart cut 700 jobs in New Jersey and North Carolina as it consolidated its office facilities and overall corporate footprint.
Walmart’s profits remain robust despite these cuts. In the first quarter of 2025:
- Revenue rose 2.5% to $165.6 billion
- Walmart U.S. sales rose 3.2% to $112.2 billion
So while the company is tightening up how it runs, it’s still making money—this is more about long-term strategy than financial survival.
What does this mean for workers
If you’re currently working in one of these roles—or know someone who is—it’s a tough moment. Even with reassignment options, job cuts often bring:
- Stress and uncertainty
- Fewer growth opportunities
- Lower job morale
To a lot of Walmart employees, especially those who made careers of Academy jobs or promoted their way into Market Coordinator roles, this is a big loss.
Walmart is “simplifying,” but to real people, that means the loss of an established job, and maybe to a career that they were proud to have.
