Macy’s announced Monday that the retail chain will be furloughing some 130,000 employees after it shut the doors on its 800-plus brick-and-mortar stores on March 18.
“While the digital business remains open, we have lost the majority of our sales due to the store closures,” Macy’s said in a statement. “We’ve already taken measures to maintain financial flexibility, including suspending the dividend, drawing down our line of credit, freezing both hiring and spending, stopping capital spend, reducing receipts, cancelling some orders and extending payment terms, and we are evaluating all other financing options.
“While these actions have helped, it is not enough,” the statement continued, adding that the company will now be “moving to the absolute minimum workforce needed to maintain basic operations.”
The company added that there will be “fewer furloughs in our digital business” to support online sales, and that they “expect to bring colleagues back on a staggered basis as business resumes.”
The company said that through May, employees who had previously been enrolled in health benefits will continue to have coverage and that the company would be covering premiums.