Home Depot stores face hiring strain despite stronger labor market
April openings hit 7.6 million, but Home Depot still has to staff freight, receiving and overnight shifts that a stronger labor market does not automatically fill.
Job openings rose to 7.6 million in April 2026 while unemployment held at 4.3 percent and payrolls added just 115,000 workers, a combination that still leaves Home Depot stores chasing the same dependable labor they need for freight, receiving, overnight replenishment and front-end coverage.
Employers added more than half a million jobs between March and May, and occupational mismatch remained a major source of friction in SHRM's June 26 labor-market review. In April, the unemployed-people-per-job-opening ratio fell below one again, which meant there were more openings than unemployed workers, but not necessarily more workers with the right skills for store operations, contractor sales or high-volume customer service.
Knowledgeable associates and on-shelf availability are critical to the store experience, and the company is trying to empower associates through training, product knowledge, process simplification and technology. That puts more weight on hiring people who can learn quickly, hold a schedule and cover the busiest aisles when spring and summer projects surge.
At the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2026, Home Depot operated 2,361 retail stores and more than 1,280 SRS locations. The company expects to keep building 15 to 20 stores a year after completing an approximately 80-store plan in 2027.
In a Home Depot Foundation and Morning Consult survey, nearly 60 percent of Americans said they lacked high confidence that their communities could rebuild quickly after a disaster, and more than half of contractors said hiring skilled labor is challenging. Among contractors who had worked disaster recovery projects, that figure rose to 60 percent. The Foundation’s Path to Pro effort began in 2018 with a $50 million commitment, and in 2025 it invested $10 million in skilled trades training and education.
On January 28, 2026, the company cut 800 corporate jobs and required corporate employees to return to the office five days a week.
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