Tyler Schipper, associate professor of economics in the University of St. Thomas College of Arts and Sciences, shared his insights with multiple media outlets on the recent Target layoffs and what they reveal about broader trends in the white-collar job market and consumer sentiment.
From KSTP:
From KARE 11:
... “It’s right in our backyard,” said University of St. Thomas economics professor, Tyler Schipper. “It’s one of the very visible corporate headquarters.”
With 35,000 workers in Minnesota and more than 7,000 specifically in downtown Minneapolis, Target is the state’s fourth-largest employer and downtown’s second-largest. This week’s layoffs represent a relatively small portion of that overall workforce, but the restructuring fits with broader trends in the white collar workforce.
On Tuesday, Amazon also announced thousands of corporate layoffs in a restructuring move.
“I think having these two stories at the same time does make it seem like this is everywhere, but I think the context is necessary here,” Schipper said. “These type of jobs, the corporate jobs in professional business services, have seen slower job growth. We have been losing jobs in these types of white-collar jobs.” ...
“In the broader economy, we’re seeing headwinds for retailers. They are trying to find ways to cut costs,” Schipper said.
From MPR:
... For more context on the economic conditions around these layoffs, MPR News host Clay Masters spoke with Tyler Schipper, an associate professor of data analytics and economics at the University of St. Thomas.
Masters: Target is one of the biggest employers in downtown Minneapolis, and it’s not the first big company to announce layoffs. Amazon is letting go of 14,000 workers. Do these reorganizations make sense given the current economy?
Schipper: When you look at the wording from both of these corporations, it’s being put in terms of trying to be more nimble, but we’re still talking about big layoffs at corporations that are consumer-facing. I think a lot of this is a reflection of how consumers feel about the economy right now, and there’s probably differences in why each of these corporations is doing this. But Target’s probably much more likely to have a bigger local feel, given how important they are downtown.
Masters: Can you characterize the market that retail businesses are operating in right now?
Schipper: We’re in an interesting place right now, where there’s kind of two different types of consumers. High-income consumers still feel pretty good about the world and they keep spending money, but middle-income and lower-income consumers feel not so great about the world.
We’ve seen, for instance, even people making six figures much more likely to shop at places like Walmart and Dollar Tree than in the past. Those are some of the headwinds that a corporation like Target is feeling, where if people perceive you to be more about discretionary spending rather than necessities, that means that you might be losing out on some sales right now, and hence you might be having to lay some people off now.
