Target Formalizes Layoffs (TGT)

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Apr 28, 5:46AM EDT · Published Jan 27, 5:09PM EST

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Target_logo_2 Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) has just confirmed the layoffs we and other reports discussed earlier today. As we expected, this is a very small number of jobs, and it appears to be more corporate jobs rather than "store level" positions.

The layoffs at the headquarters locations will affect 9% of staff.They will include roughly 600 employees and 400 open positions,primarily in the Twin Cities area and will become effective today.

On top of this, Target said that it will shut its distribution centerin Little Rock, Arkansas, later this year. That move is expected toaffect another 500 jobs. distribution center, which currently employs500 people, later this year.

The company said that the very soft economy is making it take a moreconservative approach to business planning. It will take $0.03 off its EPS for Q4-2008 because of the job cuts. The companynoted that the annualized savings should exceed the charge.

This will not make any of the freshly fired workers feel any better.But this is a tiny number of positions being cut in relation to thecompany’s size. The company currently operates 1,682 stores, 34distribution centers, and it employs approximately 350,000 peopleworldwide.

Jon C. Ogg
January 27, 2009

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.