Sears' layoffs represented about 4.3 percent of the company's 6,900 corporate workers. The workers were based at the company's headquarters in Illinois as well as at facilities in Michigan and New York City, a Sears spokeswoman said, confirming a Wall Street Journal report.

Sears would not say if there were more layoffs in the pipeline, or how much the U.S. company hoped to save.

This month, Sears -- controlled by hedge fund manager Edward Lampert -- 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.

(Reporting by Edwin Chan; editing by Carol Bishopric)