How many employees does Walmart have? Its workforce & layoffs explained

This whitethorn travel arsenic a surprise, but 1 of the world's biggest winners of the artificial quality (AI) gyration isn't really a exertion steadfast — it's Walmart (WMT), the big-box discount retailer.

Thanks to its aboriginal and assertive bets connected AI opening successful the precocious 2010s, Walmart has transformed its operations, optimized its proviso chain, and chopped transportation times to arsenic small arsenic 30 minutes portion boosting worker productivity.

AI has besides helped substance double-digit stock terms gains, pushing Walmart's valuation supra $1 trillion — the archetypal retailer ever to scope that milestone. In fact, connected January 9, 2026, Walmart joined the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 scale arsenic a reflection of its integer transformation, triggering an estimated $19 cardinal successful passive superior inflows and sending shares to caller highs.

But these advancements are coming astatine a quality cost. In May 2026, Walmart announced that, arsenic portion of a program to streamline its planetary operations, it would laic disconnected oregon relocate astir 1,000 firm workers.

While a institution spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal that these changes were "related to organizational operation and alignment, not handing implicit much tasks to artificial intelligence," Walmart's employees accidental that the company's AI-fueled initiatives person resulted successful a contention to conscionable "impossible deadlines," raising concerns implicit workplace information and merchandise quality.

However, successful June, WMT's investors rejected a shareholder connection that would person reported connected however its usage of AI is affecting the well-being of its workforce. Just 4.95% of the votes supported the proposal, and shareholders concluded that Walmart already discloses applicable workplace information accusation successful its regular reports.

So, what does Walmart's workforce look similar now, and what bash the company's AI ambitions mean for the radical wrong its stores, warehouses, and firm offices?

How galore employees does Walmart person successful 2026?

According to Walmart's 2026 Annual Report, the institution employs 1.6 cardinal associates successful the United States, and different fractional a cardinal astir the world, for a full of 2.1 cardinal employees — that's astir the colonisation of New Mexico. This makes Walmart the world's largest backstage employer.

92% of Walmart's workforce is hourly, and 68% are full-time. "Our workforce strategy reflects our committedness to creating a future-ready workforce, supporting subordinate growth, and fostering a civilization wherever associates tin thrive," the study said.

In 2015, astir 10 years ago, Walmart employed somewhat much associates worldwide—2.3 cardinal to beryllium exact. In that year, the institution announced a $2.7 cardinal concern successful its US workforce, raising its entry-level hourly wage to $9 per hour, astir $1.75 supra the nationalist minimum wage.