Best Buy Recently Laid Off 5000 Employees

(RTTNews) - Electronics retailer Best Buy says it laid off 5,000 full-time store workers earlier this month, despite the company recording strong sales growth during the COVID-19 pandemic as people bought laptops, TVs and other electronics items due to being stuck at home.

The company said it cut those jobs as more and more shoppers are choosing to shop online instead of going to its brick-and-mortar stores. Best Buy said it will replace the 5,000 full-time employees with 2,000 part-time workers.

CEO Corie Barry told analysts that starting earlier this month, Best Buy had been adjusting the mix of full-time and part-time employees in stores, due to "having too many full-time and not enough part-time employees."

Best Buy expects 40% of its sales to come from online purchases this year, up from 19% two years ago. The company said it had to make changes in its workforce in response to this change.

Best Buy's workforce has dropped by 17%, or down by 21,000, from last year to about 100,000 worker.