Lowe’s slashes 1,700 managers, hiring more weekend part-timers

Mooresville, NC, United States (AHN) – Home-improvement retailer Lowe’s has announced it will cut 1,700 full-time middle manager jobs and hire up to 10,000 part-time employees to staff its stores on the weekends.

Lowe’s said Tuesday the laid-off middle managers can apply for one of the part-time weekend jobs or any other available position. The company employs 238,000 workers nationwide.

Mooresville, N.C.-based Lowe’s said it plans to hire between 8,000 and 10,000 part-time employees nationwide to work on the weekends when many do-it-yourselfers shop at the store. The company said it expects the move to improve customer service on the weekends, which are Lowe’s busiest time of the week.

The part-time weekend workers will be tasked with encouraging customers to buy more.

Lowe’s has trailed rival Home Depot in profit growth recently. Rising home foreclosures, sinking home values and sales and the stagnant economy have kept growth down.

Eliminating the managers will remove a layer of management at the stores, which will now have just two layers of management, store managers and newly created assistant store managers. Most stores had between four and six managers. Lowe’s is cutting the middle managers who oversaw store operations, sales and administration. The new assistant store manager’s position will manage merchandise categories.

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