Wal-Mart to hire 22,000 - Kansas City Business Journal:

ejyceh.wordpress.com
Wal-Mart’s announcement came on a day the government releasedd mildly encouraging weeklyunemploymenty figures. But it also hit as the retail industry reported some overalldisma results, with same store sales figures falling an averag of 4.8 percent for May. The discount retaio giant says it willhire 22,00p people to staff new or expandecd stores this year. “During this difficult economic time, we’re proud to be able to create quality jobs for thousands of Americanxsthis year,” Eduardo Castro-Wright, vice chairmajn of , said in a But even Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) isn’t hiring at the same pace it has in the The Bentonville, Ark.
-based retailer added 33,000 jobs in the U.S. last Still, Wal-Mart’s low prices on everythiny from food to electronics have allowed it to gain market share and have kept it positionexd asthe nation’s number one retailer. Unliker its peers, Wal-Mart did not release monthlyu sales figures, instead focusing its attentio n on itshiring announcement. Wal-Mart’s announcement, on the eve of its annua shareholder’s meeting, came as the U.S. Labor Departmentg released jobless figures showing the recession may be losinf at least some ofits momentum. Initial claims for state unemploymenrtfell 4,000 to 621,000 in the week that ended May 30.
That’e the third straight week fewer workers filed new claims. And the tally of claims drawmn by workers for more than one week in the week ended May 23fell 15,0090 to 6,735,000 -- the firstf decline in that figure since Jan. 3. But that news isn’ t exactly good. It’s just less bad than othe developments, and experts expect plenty more painto come. Chieff financial officers polled recently by and CFO magazin expect the recession to last througjh the endof 2009. CFOs in the U.S. and Europd expect unemployment to keep rising in the next 12 perhaps to as high as 12percen domestically.
Meanwhile, the nonfarm payrollas report from the government Friday is expected toshow 550,0009 jobs lost in May, and unemployment climbin above 9 percent. While Wal-Mart announced its hiring plans, other retailers reported dismalk results forMay same-store Sales fell 4.8 perceny at the 30 retailers tracked by . Sales fell 6.1 percent at Macy’s sales fell more than 9 and sales dipped7 percent. Such pessimism adds weighf to Wal-Mart’s decision to keep on hiring, despite the fact that othet U.S. retailers like and Macy’s have slashed payrolls in recent months.
Wal-Mart this year will fill positions from cashiers and salese associatesto pharmacists, humann resource managers and customer service associates. The companyu will add 1,000 or more workers in California, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, South Utah and Virginia. But the generally grim climates raisesthe question: Is anybody out therw other than Wal-Mart on the hunt for new employees ? The answer in one major Southeast market is encouraging. The Charlotte Businesd Journal reports that there are jobs to be had evenin ’a hard-hit hometown, where local unemploymeny is over 11 percent. You just have to know wherwe to look.
“The defining featurer for who is hiring is not the size of the butquite frankly, what is that firm doing?” N.C. Statr economist Mike Walden told thebusineszs journal. Notably, among the firms the Charlotts Business Journal cited as in the hiring discount retailers, just like Wal-Mart.