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Home Depot Plans Layoffs At HeadquartersHome Depot, battered by a downturn in the housing market, is laying off 500 workers at its headquarters in Atlanta, or about 10 percent of its work force there, the company said. The chain appears to be the first major American retailer to make job cuts because of a slowdown in consumer spending, and the move may be ominous sign of what is to come across the industry. “We are operating in a tough economic environment and we see that continuing into 2008,” said Ron DeFeo, a spokesman for the home improvement chain. Home Depot is eliminating jobs in a wide variety of departments, like human resources and information technology, but the layoffs will not affect workers at the chain’s 2,200 stores, Mr. DeFeo said. The chain announced the job cuts internally Thursday. Laid-off Home Depot workers will receive pay for 60 days. Mr. DeFeo said Home Depot was focused on investing in its stores and would try to limit budget cutting to its headquarters. Home Depot, which sells everything from hammers to stoves, is at the center of the housing market slump. The chain’s third-quarter profit fell 27 percent, to $1.1 billion from $1.5 billion in the period a year ago. Behind the earnings dip was a drop in sales to $19 billion, from $19.6 billion, as demand for home-building supplies like lumber and remodeling materials like paint has slowed significantly. “We thought the housing market would be soft, but we were not pessimistic enough,” Carol B. Tomé, Home Depot’s chief financial officer, said when the retailer announced its third-quarter earnings in November. The company predicted that its 2007 earnings from continuing operations, which have not yet been disclosed, could drop as much as 11 percent a share, a steeper fall than previously predicted. Home Depot is in a difficult position because, after years of cutting back on service, it is now investing heavily in new employees and store remodeling. But the extra spending has coincided with an economic downturn. Tag CloudExternal InformationAdditional InformationVMware Shares Surge With I.P.O....Square Feet | Checking In: A New Style of Hotel Where Work Meets Play... Deutsche Telekom Trims Its Profit Forecast... Pondering Public Uses for a Hall Named Great... Where Am I?News Main Page - Business - Home Depot Plans Layoffs At Headquarters |
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