Target said on Thursday it’s cutting 1,800 corporate jobs as the retailer tries to get back to growth after four years of roughly stagnant sales.

It marks the first major round of layoffs in a decade for the Minneapolis-based retailer. It announced the layoffs in a memo sent by Target’s incoming CEO Michael Fiddelke to employees at its headquarters.

The eliminated roles are a combination of about 1,000 employee layoffs and about 800 positions that will no longer be filled, a company spokesman said. Together, they represent an approximately 8% cut to Target’s corporate workforce, according to the memo. Affected employees will be notified Tuesday.

The retailer announced the cuts as it nears a leadership change.

Target in August named Fiddelke, currently its chief operating officer and formerly chief financial officer, as the successor to longtime leader Brian Cornell. He takes the helm February 1.

Fiddelke has also overseen the Enterprise Acceleration Office, an effort announced in May, which looked for ways to simplify company operations, use technology in new ways and speed up Target’s growth. 

Target has been fighting a sales slump, as it tries to rebound from declining store traffic, inventory troubles and customer backlash. The company has said it expects annual sales to decline this year.

Its shares have fallen by 65% since their all-time high in late 2021.

Compared to retail competitors, Target draws less of its overall sales from groceries and other necessities, which can make its business more vulnerable to the ups and downs of the economy and consumer sentiment. About half of Target’s sales come from discretionary items, compared to only 40% at Walmart, according to estimates from GlobalData Retail.

As a result of that and other company-specific challenges, Target’s sales trends and stock performance have diverged sharply from competitors. Shares of Walmart are up about 123% in the past five years, compared to Target’s decline of 41% during the same time period.

In a memo sent Thursday to employees at Target’s headquarters, Fiddelke said the employee cuts will help Target make urgent changes.

“The truth is, the complexity we’ve created over time has been holding us back,” he said in the memo. “Too many layers and overlapping work have slowed decisions, making it harder to bring ideas to life.”

He said the cuts are difficult, but “a necessary step in building the future of Target and enabling the progress and growth we all want to see.”   

Target employees affected by the layoffs will receive pay and benefits until January 3, in addition to severance packages, according to a company spokesman. No roles in stores or in Target’s supply chain were impacted by the cuts, the company spokesman said.

Read the full memo from Fiddelke:

The number of reported passenger assaults on the rail network has more than tripled in the past 10 years, according to official figures.

Between April 2024 and March 2025 found there were 10,231 reported assaults, up 7% on the year before, the Office of Rail and Road’s annual report into health and safety found.

Ten years ago, there were 3,211 reported assaults, including harassment and common assaults.

The increase coincides with a drive by British Transport Police to encourage the public to report a wide range of potential concerns on the rail network.

Its “See It. Say It. Sorted.” campaign was launched in 2016 and then relaunched last year, encouraging the public to report “anything unusual”, either to station staff or to British Transport Police.

In 2022, it launched its ‘Speak Up, Interrupt’ campaign to encourage anyone who witnesses inappropriate sexual behaviour “to report incidents or safely intervene where they can”.

Across the mainline rail network, harassment and common assault made up more than three quarters of the total assaults, and both of these categories saw an increase.

This trend was mirrored on the London Underground, where reported assaults reached their highest level since the data series began in 2004, up to just over 4,600.

Of those reported incidents, harassment and common assault counting for more than 80% of the total.

In the financial year from April 2024 in the report to March 2025, passengers took 1.7 billion journeys on the mainline railway.

In that period, 14 members of the public died on the mainline network and the London Underground (not counting suicides and trespass-related incidents).

There were also two deaths of workers on the rail network – one after being assaulted at a station, and the other resulting from a fall.

The number of suicides across the rail network were also at their highest level since 2002.

Across the mainline network, there were 368 suicides or suspected suicide attempts, resulting in 293 fatalities.

Thursday’s report found injuries to members of the public and workers have also been creeping back towards pre-pandemic highs.

Recording just over 11,472 injuries, this marked the fourth yearly increase in a row, but was still below level reported in 2019-20.

Of these injuries, the vast majority – almost 80% – were non-severe.

The ORR divides up the information it reports between the mainline rail network, non-mainline (which includes services through the Channel Tunnel, as well as trams and light rail), and the London Underground.

• If you, or someone you know, has been affected by mental health issues BBC Action Line has put together a list of organisations which can help.