Kroger (NYSE:KR) was bullish on management - until it wasn't.
The retailer more than doubled 2018's high for management job postings, defined in our data as vice president roles and management jobs - but, in 2019, Kroger has reduced these openings to nearly 0 after a hitting a high of nearly 60 in March of this year.
The Cincinnati Inquirer broke the news that the company is looking to trim an unspecified number of management roles nationwide, thanks in part to the fact that Kroger's margins have been pinched by digital delivery plays and an influx of new competitors into the space - like Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN).
Our last chart makes clear how stark the reduction was - in part because Kroger (NYSE:KR) wants to, as one spokesperson put it to the Inky, "keep resources close to the customer."
Over the same timeframe in which Kroger (NYSE:KR) reduced from 59 to 2, the total number of management positions it had open, it grew all job postings by 15% - so, folks like the one in the photo above, won't be any harder to find, when you can't figure out where milk or cheese or kiwis are.
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.