Target lays off 275 in IT departments

MINNEAPOLIS — After months of anticipation, the ax fell in Target Corp.’ s technology operations in the Twin Cities, where about 235 employees were let go Tuesday morning.

The retailer’s information technology units had largely been spared in layoffs earlier this year that affected about 2,500 jobs, or about one- fifth of the workers in the company’s corporate offices in this Minneapolis area.

In addition to the layoffs Tuesday, Target said it will close about 35 open positions. Another 40 people were laid off at Target’s IT center in India, where it employs about 2,600 people.

The company is still hiring for a number of positions in the technology department, Target spokesman Molly Snyder said. Those that were impacted by the layoffs were mostly in areas such as business analysis and project management.

“We are redeploying several positions in our technology department and will continue to recruit technical talent,” Snyder said in a statement.

For weeks, company executives had been upfront with IT workers that layoffs were coming. Chief executive Brian Cornell, in an interview last month, said the number would not be “huge” compared with the layoffs earlier this year.

The cuts have been a painful part of Cornell’s plan to find cost savings and to reduce layers of bureaucracy that had weighed down the retailer and made it slower to react and innovate in a fast- changing retail landscape.

Target’s technology services were untouched by previous rounds while new chief information officer Mike McNamara, who arrived in June, was given time to assess the department. Laid- off workers will receive similar separation packages as other Target workers received in previous rounds of cuts.

With this latest round of layoffs, Target now has fewer than 11,000 people in its corporate offices in the Twin Cities.

As it trimmed staff, the company also decided to consolidate its physical space. Last month, Target told employees of its west campus along the western edge of Minneapolis that it will sell that building and relocate them to a newer campus next year.