Brookfield Properties’ retail arm lays off 20% of its workforce as pandemic hits malls

Yahoo Finance’s Akiko Fujita and Sibile Marcellus discuss Brookfield Properties laying off 20% of its workforce amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Video Transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: Well, the impact from the economic shutdown continuing to ripple across the retail sector. Real estate giant Brookfield Properties now looking to slash up to 20% of its workforce, at least according to CNBC. This comes months after Simon Property Group furloughed 30% of its workforce because of pandemic-related shutdowns. Let's bring in Sibile Marcellus for that story. Sibile, do we know where they are looking to cut or what kind of jobs Brookfield is looking at?

SIBILE MARCELLUS: Yes, so Brookfield Properties is looking at cutting jobs both at its corporate headquarters but also at leasing agencies in the field. So what we're seeing here is that basically the pandemic with its requirements in terms of stopping the spread that people wear masks, social distance, use hand sanitizers, keep your hands clean, all of that isn't really conducive to making people want to on a Saturday spend their time walking in the malls surrounded by a crowd. And what we're seeing is that the pandemic has had a significant impact on malls, and here, we're seeing Brookfield properties, which is a mall-owner giant feeling the ramifications. Now, the company did try to prevent massive layoffs and furloughs back in March when we were undergoing the coronavirus shutdown, but the company says that it has reviewed basically its business and realized that these job cuts are going to be necessary. So what Brookfield Properties is going to do is basically cut about 20% of their workforce.

AKIKO FUJITA: Yeah, the malls have really just been struggling. It's not just about the realtors, but also those stores that are in the malls. It's going to be interesting to see how they try to evolve, especially with so few going during the pandemic. Thanks so much for that, Sibile.