The Home Depot Inc., the nation's largest home improvement store chain, is cutting about 300 jobs at its Atlanta headquarters, according to an Aug. 30 Associated Press report. Chief Executive Bob Nardelli reportedly made the announcement in a memo to all 355,000 Home Depot employees in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The company has 5,400 people working at its Atlanta headquarters, so the cuts represent about 5.5 percent of the workforce there.

Nardelli said the decision relates to the company's recent announcement to invest $350 million in the second half of this year to improve the experience of customers at its 2,087 stores. According to the AP report, the effort involves increased availability of staff, customer service call boxes in some stores and self-checkout terminals in all stores. Most of the affected employees will continue to work for up to two weeks, and all affected employees will be paid for the next two months, Nardelli said. He said some could be placed in jobs in other parts of the company. He did not say which positions would be cut.

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