Heads are rolling again at JCPenney.
The flailing retailer — whose CEO, Ron Johnson, is now fighting for his own job — has fired 1,500 store-level department managers and merchandising positions across its chain, The Post has learned.
The layoffs this week are the latest carnage at Penney, which last month eliminated 300 positions at its headquarters in Plano, Texas, according to sources.
Last April, in the first of two major rounds of layoffs, Johnson canned 8,000 store-level positions, including managers and assistant managers, sources said.
Johnson testified this week at a trial with Macy’s, which is suing Penney and Martha Stewart for improperly cutting a licensing deal behind its back, and said that 19,000 workers have lost their jobs since he took the helm in fall 2011.
In January, the 1,100-store chain laid off 1,000 receptionists at its salons.
Penney officials didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The company’s stock tumbled to its lowest level in nearly four years yesterday, closing at $14.43, down 26.8 percent in 2013, as analysts turned sour on the retailer’s prospects.
As reported by The Post last week, Penney’s board is weighing whether to give the ax to Johnson, a former Apple exec whose strategy to eliminate sales and coupons last year has backfired badly.
After the close of trading, Vornado Realty, whose chairman, Steve Roth, sits on Penney board, confirmed it had sold 10 million JCP shares — or 40 percent of its stake.
It now owns 6.1 percent of the retailer.
Vornado suffered real and paper losses of $225 million on its Penney investment.