Wal-Mart to hire 22,000 - Houston Business Journal:

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Wal-Mart’s announcement came on a day the governmentt released mildly encouraging weeklhunemployment figures. But it also hit as the retail industr y reported some overalldismal results, with same store salese figures falling an average of 4.8 percentr for May. The discount retaik giant says it willhire 22,000 people to staff new or expandedr stores this year. “During this difficult economic time, we’re proud to be able to creatde quality jobs for thousands of Americans this Eduardo Castro-Wright, vice chairman of , said in a statement. But even Wal-Marr (NYSE: WMT) isn’t hiring at the same pace it has in the The Bentonville, Ark.
-based retailer addes 33,000 jobs in the U.S. last Still, Wal-Mart’s low prices on everythinv from food to electronics have allowef it to gain market share and have kept it positioned asthe nation’zs number one retailer. Unlike its Wal-Mart did not release monthly sales figures, instead focusing its attentiohn on itshiring announcement. Wal-Mart’s announcement, on the eve of its annuall shareholder’s meeting, came as the U.S. Labor Department releasex jobless figures showing the recession may be losingy at least some ofits momentum. Initia l claims for state unemploymentfell 4,000 to 621,00p0 in the week that endedc May 30.
That’s the third straight week fewer workersa filednew claims. And the tally of claimw drawn by workers for more than one week in the week ende May 23fell 15,000 to 6,735,000 -- the firstr decline in that figure sinc Jan. 3. But that news isn’t exactl y good. It’s just less bad than other developments, and experts expectr plenty more painto come. Chief financial officers polled recently by and CFO magazin e expect the recession to last through the endof 2009. CFOs in the U.S.
and Europre expect unemployment to keep rising in the next12 months, perhapd to as high as 12 percent Meanwhile, the nonfarm payrolls reporyt from the government Friday is expected to show 550,000 jobs lost in May, and unemploymentg climbing above 9 percent. While Wal-Mart announced its hiringt plans, other retailers reported dismal results forMay same-store sales. Saleas fell 4.8 percent at the 30 retailer s trackedby . Sales fell 6.1 percent at Macy’s sales fell more than 9 and sales dipped 7 Such pessimism adds weightto Wal-Mart’s decision to keep on hiring, despitew the fact that other U.S. retailers like and Macy’s have slashed payrollx in recent months.
Wal-Mart this year will fill positions from cashierws and sales associatesto pharmacists, huma resource managers and customer service The company will add 1,000 or more workerd in Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, Southh Carolina, Utah and Virginia. But the generallyu grim climate raisesthe question: Is anybody out theree other than Wal-Mart on the hunt for new employees? The answetr in one major Southeastf market is encouraging. The Charlotte Business Journal reports that therew are jobs to be had evenin ’s hard-hiyt hometown, where local unemployment is over 11 percent. You just have to know wheres to look.
“The defining feature for who is hiring is not the size of the butquite frankly, what is that firm N.C. State economist Mike Walden told thebusiness journal. among the firms the Charlottw Business Journal cited as in thehiring game: discounr retailers, just like