Lowe's cutting thousands of store-level jobs as economic recovery remains sluggish

The home-improvement chain Lowe's has cut the equivalent of about 10 full-time employees at each of its more than 1,700 stores as company executives say the economic recovery remains sluggish.

Chief Financial Officer Robert Hull Jr. said the chain has cut the number of payroll hours per week it takes to run the average Lowe's store by almost 400 hours. He would not say how many total hours it takes to run one of the stores.

Hull made the remarks on a conference call Nov. 15, in response to a question from a Deutsche Bank analyst.

Here's the corporate-speak version: "A lot of work has been done by the store operation team regarding store payroll, really focusing on decomposing processes, leveraging thoughts from the field on how we can do things better," Hull said. "As a result we have a greater proportion of hours in customer facing activities and the stores have been able to reduce the number of hours to run a Lowe's store by almost 400."

The company also closed two regional offices during the third quarter. The cuts are part of a wider effort to position Lowe's for a "slow growth environment" with continued uncertainty in employment and housing.