Home Depot Cuts 7,000 Jobs, Freezes Salaries

By Greenhouse Grower staff|January 26, 2009

The Home Depot announced Monday it will cut 7,000 jobs and freeze officer salaries due to the current economic climate. The company said the job cuts are “to better align the company’s cost structure with the current economic environment.”

Last January Home Depot cut 500 jobs, and in May it closed 15 stores, eliminating 1,300 positions. Three-hundred positions were eliminated in 2006 from the company’s Atlanta headquarters.

In addition to slashing jobs, a salary freeze has been implemented for all of Home Depot’s officers. The company also is closing its EXPO business, which “has not performed well financially and is not expected to anytime soon,” according to the company. Home Depot will shutter 34 EXPO Design Center stores, five YardBIRDS stores, two Design Center stores and seven HD locations over the next two months, eliminating 5,000 workers.

The company believes the changes will result in a boost of $305 million in its fiscal 2009 earnings before interest and tax.

“We’re very fortunate that the soundness of our company lets us live our value of taking care of our people, even in this time of unprecedented economic hardship,” chairman and CEO Frank Blake said in a news release. “These changes will make us a stronger company and will allow us to continue to grow associate employment over the long term to benefit our customers.”