Wal-Mart Stores will cut 700 to 800 jobs at its northwestern Arkansas headquarters in an effort to reduce costs, the world's largest retailer announced on Tuesday.

The cuts are in the real estate, apparel and health and wellness departments, spokesman David Tovar said. He said the cuts will also include marketing and support administration jobs.

But Wal-Mart currently has no plans to eliminate store level jobs, he said. Instead, it plans to add jobs at its New York apparel office and expects "to add thousands of jobs" at Wal-Mart stores and Sam's Club warehouses this year.

"We still plan to open between 125 and 140 new stores for which we plan to hire thousands of new associates," Tovar said.

Last year, Wal-Mart opened 166 new stores, leading to the cuts in the real estate unit.

"Obviously, we don't need as many people to do the work to site a new store, to build a new store," Tovar said.

The US retailing giant is one of a handful of merchants that posted sales gains in January, while most others suffered deep declines in the wake of global financial crisis.

Wal-Mart now employs more than 1.4 million people in the United States alone and about 2 million worldwide. About 14,000 people work in the Arkansas headquarters.

(Xinhua News Agency February 11, 2009)