Walmart is Growing - But Not Its Workforce

While Walmart throws its big annual employee party, celebrating record sales and a stock price on steroids, there's something missing from the confetti: new jobs.

Fewer workers, more billions

Walmart — still the largest private employer in the US — has nearly 70,000 fewer workers than it did five years ago. And yet, in the same period, it added over $150 billion in revenue. Impressive? Absolutely. But it raises eyebrows.

Despite its plans to keep growing at about 4% per year, Walmart doesn’t expect to significantly boost its headcount. That’s a big deal for the retail sector, which employs one in ten Americans and is known for offering career paths even without a college degree.

Why it’s happening

It’s all about tech. The company is betting big on ecommerce and automation — from robots unpacking pallets to machines updating price labels. And now with AI joining the party, things are getting even faster and leaner.

CEO Doug McMillon insists this doesn’t mean cutting people. “Jobs will change, not disappear,” he says. But critics aren’t so sure. While Walmart US sales jumped 36% in five years, hourly wages rose only 28%. Union reps argue that Walmart is leading a trend of squeezing more productivity out of each worker without fair compensation.

Meanwhile, competitors are hiring

Rivals like Costco, Target, and Amazon have all added tens of thousands of workers in the past few years. But Walmart’s strategy is clear: scale up without scaling payroll.

In Dallas, Walmart opened two futuristic warehouses — one for cold food storage and another for rapid ecommerce delivery. The tech inside is wild: algorithms direct robots to store and sort goods, cut costs by 20%, and double productivity. One warehouse does the job with 600 people, or one worker per 1,200 sq ft.

The impact on workers

Even with tax breaks from local governments, Walmart didn’t meet all hiring promises. In some cases, new high-tech centers replaced older sites where over 1,000 jobs were lost. Across the country, automation is shifting how work gets done — like building shipping boxes now handled by robots, not humans.

Inside stores, automation helps too: shipments arrive pre-sorted, freeing up staff for other tasks. In some cases, five full-time workers were reallocated thanks to upstream automation.

So what’s next?

Walmart plans to open 150 new US stores and more Sam’s Clubs, which should bring some jobs back. But overall? Don’t expect major payroll growth.

“As we become even more tech-powered, it’s our 2 million associates — their passion and commitment — that will drive our future,” said Donna Morris, Walmart’s Chief People Officer.

Bottom line: Walmart isn’t cutting corners — it’s cutting complexity. And it’s clear that in the retail world, automation is not the future. It’s already here.