American retail chain, Walmart is reportedly laying off more than 2,000 workers at five US warehouses that fulfill website orders.

CNN is reporting that the move comes weeks after America’s largest private employer warned it’s in for a tough year ahead. Walmart is cutting more than 1,000 jobs in Texas, 600 jobs in Pennsylvania, 400 in Florida and 200 in New Jersey, according to Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification filings. 

Walmart didn’t immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment but it’s unclear whether this retrenchment is just the beginning or end of layoffs that have been affecting many large companies. Reuters first reported last month that the job cuts were on because of reductions and elimination in evening and weekend shifts.

In the company’s most recent earnings, Walmart told investors to expect slower sales and profit growth. It also recently announced that it will raise its average minimum wage from US$12 to US$14 an hour as it tries to retain store workers in a tight labour market for lower-wage industries.

As a result, that will impact profit, squeezing margins at the same time as its core lower-income shoppers continue to be hit by inflation, which could dent its sales this year.

“The consumer is still very pressured,” Walmart CFO, John Rainey told CNBC in February.

30,000 JOBS ELIMINATED SINCE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR

Walmart hasn’t had mass layoffs like e-commerce rival Amazon. The online retailer has eliminated roughly 30,000 jobs since the beginning of the year across several divisions.

The latest layoffs at Amazon come amid a spate of job cuts in the technology industry in recent months, as the sector confronts a whiplash in pandemic-induced demand for digital goods and services and broader macroeconomic uncertainty.