Home Depot Reaffirms Guidance, Signals Cautious Hiring and Growth Plans

Home Depot used its Investor and Analyst Conference on December 9 to reaffirm its fiscal 2025 guidance and to lay out a preliminary outlook for fiscal 2026, signaling a guarded approach to growth that employees should watch. The company maintained expectations for roughly 3 percent total sales growth in fiscal 2025, slightly positive comparable sales, and the opening of about 12 new stores. For fiscal 2026 management provided a preliminary range of total sales growth of 2.5 percent to 4.5 percent, with comparable sales flat to up 2 percent, and presented a market recovery case scenario to show upside if conditions improve.

The presentation emphasized three strategic priorities, drive core and culture, deliver an interconnected experience, and win the pro customer, and it explicitly tied those priorities to near term investment choices. Home Depot reported operating about 2,356 retail stores and more than 1,200 service and repair and specialty locations at the end of the third quarter, and it employed over 470,000 associates. Those workforce numbers underscore the scale of decisions that leadership will make as it balances capital deployment, store expansion, and investments in technology and training.

For workers the update matters because the company framed tradeoffs that could constrain or accelerate hiring and associate programs depending on sales performance and the pace of market recovery. A cautious sales outlook paired with a limited number of new stores points to measured staffing needs at corporate support roles and store levels, while the emphasis on winning professional customers may shift resources into training, assortment and pro focused store staffing. Conversely, a stronger than expected market recovery would be the scenario management cited for stepping up investments and potentially accelerating hiring and openings.

Store managers, hourly associates and corporate teams will be watching subsequent quarterly results and execution details to see how the broad priorities translate into scheduling, training, store investments and career opportunities. The strategic update framed the choices ahead, leaving execution and local staffing impacts to be determined by sales trends and the companys pace of investing in the pro and interconnected customer experience.