TJX Companies ($TJX) might not be a household name, but the stores they own definitely are. Ever been to a TJ Maxx or a Marshalls? Yeah, that's them. The parent company employs just under 300,000 people in total, including everyone who works at Home Goods, Marmaxx, TJX Canada/International, HomeSense, Winners, Sierra, and TK Maxx. That last one is what TJ Maxx is called in Europe.

Fortunately for Europeans who work at TK Maxx, this story is not about them. It's about the U.S. employees at all the TJX Companies stores and locations nationwide, most of whom are going to be furloughed at the end of the week. This comes after all the websites for the brands shutting down, all 3,300 stores closing in mid-March, and top management taking pay cuts (we like that last one the best).

The following chart shows how many TJ Maxx workers are at risk this week.

While the official count on LinkedIn for TJ Maxx employees hasn't gone down as of yet, it might start falling once the weekend hits. There's no telling what people will do when they still technically work for a company but aren't working, and how that affects the data we track. The stock price has slipped, but that's not particularly surprising given the news.

Millions of employees at retail stores have already been furloughed, and the collection of brands under the TJX banner is another massive blow to America's workforce as one of the biggest dominoes to fall.

About the Data:

Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales. 

Further Reading: 

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