The layoffs represented about 4.3 percent of the company's 6,900 corporate workers and will come out of the firm's headquarters in Illinois as well as facilities in Michigan and New York city, the Journal cited a spokesman as saying.

Sears spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.

This month, Sears had forecast a quarterly profit above Wall Street estimates and said it would end the fiscal year with more cash, which helped prop up its stock.

But the retailer has tried to clamp down on costs, rebuild its management team and buy back stock over the past year as competition with other discounters and home-goods chains intensified in the middle of an economic downturn.

Best Buy offered voluntary exit packages to corporate workers in December, while Target said this month it will cut roughly 600 jobs at its headquarters.