NEW YORK (dpa-AFX) – The struggling US department store chain Macy’s is cutting thousands of jobs as part of a new austerity program in the face of the corona crisis. The reduction of approximately 3,900 jobs is necessary to reduce costs until the recovery from the pandemic-related sales weakness, the company announced on Thursday in New York.
At the end of 2019, the traditional shopping giant still had a total of around 123,000 employees, but the chain has been struggling for a long time and is constantly cutting jobs. Numerous employees were also given leave due to branch closings in the Corona crisis.
The announced cuts are expected to save about $ 365 million a year and about $ 630 million a year in the remainder of the fiscal year. “We know we will be a smaller company in the foreseeable future and our cost base will have to continue to reflect this,” said Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette.
The company had recently announced that it would do better in the Corona crisis than initially expected. At the beginning of June, 450 US branches were open again, and online sales also flourished. Macy’s now also stressed that the resumption of operations was going well. Nevertheless, the recovery should drag on / hbr / mis
