Report: Target lays off 1,700; to cut 1,400 positions

Minneapolis – Target Corp. laid off 1,700 mostly headquarters employees on Tuesday and is eliminating 1,400 open positions. According to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, Target notified employees of the workforce reduction in an email.



The cuts are part of a two-year, $2 billion corporate restructuring. Roughly 13% of the jobs in Target’s Minneapolis workforce will be eliminated, the report noted.



Target has disclosed it expects severance costs to total about $100 million. The retailer sent the email on March 10, a week after publicly announcing it plans to cut “several thousand” jobs.



A Target spokesperson said each laid off employee will receive 15 weeks of pay and additional severance based on years of service, and also provide career outplacement support and access to free executive education courses, and pay the employer portion of their benefits coverage for the next six months, according to the report. Target still plans to invest in employees in areas such as digital, personalization, data and analytics, and engineering.