Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, April 5 (Xinhua)-- US retail giant Wal-Mart said on Tuesday local time that it expects about 65% of its stores to be serviced by automation by the end of fiscal year 2026. Just a few days ago, the company announced plans to cut more than 2000 jobs.

It is unclear whether the move will lead to major layoffs at Wal-Mart, the largest private company in the US, which operates more than 5000 stores in the US, with about 1.7 million US workers and 60,000 overseas workers. The company said the move would reduce demand for low-paying jobs.

"as the entire enterprise changes, one of the results is jobs that require less manual labor but higher pay," Wal-Mart said in a document, according to Reuters. Over time, the company expects to maintain or even increase the number of employees as new jobs are created due to automation. "

The company said that by January 2026, about 55 per cent of packages handled through its operations centres would be transferred through automated facilities, reducing unit costs by an average of about 20 per cent.

"this increased efficiency will support not only better inventory management, but also Wal-Mart's fast-growing e-commerce business," Stephens Inc analyst Ben Bienvenu wrote in a report.

Wal-Mart did not immediately respond to questions about whether the move would lead to layoffs in the near future. The company expects net sales to grow by 2.5% to 3% for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024, and earnings per share to grow by $5.90 to $6.05.

In a conference call after the results in February, Doug McMillon, Wal-Mart's chief executive, said he was excited about the automation opportunities the company had and planned to increase investment in automation technology as part of this year's capital expenditure budget of more than $15 billion (CTOnews.com Note: currently about 103.2 billion yuan).

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