FedEx will cut more than 10 percent of its global leadership team, adding to the more than 12,000 employees it has laid off in the past seven months.
The company will also consolidate some teams and functions, building on plans announced last year to cut costs and streamline its operations in response to weaker consumer demand.
“It is my responsibility to critically look at the business and determine where we can be strongest by better aligning the size of our network with customer demand,” Chief Executive Officer Raj Subramaniam said in a statement on Wednesday.
FedEx employed about 345,000 permanent full-time workers and 202,000 permanent part-time employees as of May 31, 2022, according to its most recent annual report.
The company has reduced its workforce by more than 12,000 positions since June last year due to attrition and layoffs, a FedEx spokeswoman told the Financial Times.
The layoffs add to a growing wave of job cuts among US companies, which initially focused on technology groups but have expanded to include other sectors in recent weeks.
FedEx has struggled to extend some of the success it enjoyed during the pandemic, when many consumers were stuck at home shopping online and companies shelled out for the privilege of having goods shipped or received quickly.
In September, the company announced a hiring freeze and the closure of more than 90 of its FedEx office stores. The company said in December that it expected to cut an additional $1 billion of costs in fiscal 2023, which would bring fiscal 2023 savings to $3.7 billion. In January, it announced reductions in its Sunday delivery service.
FedEx shares rose 2.7 percent in afternoon trading Wednesday following the news, but the company’s shares have underperformed rival UPS in the short to medium term.
