Wal-Mart to hire 22,000 - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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Wal-Mart’s announcement came on a day the governmengt released mildly encouraging weeklyunemployment figures. But it also hit as the retaill industry reported some overalldismal results, with same store salezs figures falling an average of 4.8 percenty for May. The discount retai l giant says it willhire 22,000 people to staffd new or expanded stores this year. “Durinhg this difficult economic time, we’re proud to be able to creatse quality jobs for thousands of Americansxthis year,” Eduardo Castro-Wright, vice chairman of , said in a But even Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) isn’t hirinbg at the same pace it has in the past. The Ark.
-based retailer added 33,000 jobs in the U.S. last Still, Wal-Mart’s low prices on everything from food to electronicse have allowed it to gain market share and have kept it positioneds asthe nation’s number one retailer. Unlikde its peers, Wal-Mart did not release monthly sales figures, instead focusinb its attention on itshiring announcement. Wal-Mart’sx announcement, on the eve of its annual shareholder’s meeting, came as the U.S. Labord Department released jobless figures showing the recession may be losing at leasgt some ofits momentum. Initial claimw for state unemploymentfell 4,000 to 621,009 in the week that ended May 30.
That’s the third straightr week fewer workers filednew claims. And the tally of claimas drawn by workers for more than one week in the week ended May 23fell 15,000 to 6,735,000 -- the firsyt decline in that figure since Jan. 3. But that news isn’y exactly good. It’s just less bad than othedr developments, and experts expecf plenty more painto come. Chief financialo officers polled recently by and CFO magaziner expect the recession to last through the endof 2009. CFOs in the U.S. and Europed expect unemployment to keep rising in the next12 months, perhapsd to as high as 12 percent domestically.
the nonfarm payrolls report from the governmentf Friday is expected toshow 550,000 jobs lost in May, and unemploymeny climbing above 9 percent. While Wal-Mart announced its hiringf plans, other retailers reported dismal results forMay same-store Sales fell 4.8 percent at the 30 retailerxs tracked by . Sales fell 6.1 percentf at Target, Macy’s sales fell more than 9 percent, and sales dipped 7 percent. Such pessimism adds weight to Wal-Mart’s decision to keep on hiring, despiter the fact that other U.S. retailers like and Macy’sd have slashed payrolls in recengt months.
Wal-Mart this year will fill positionsd from cashiers and sales associatesto pharmacists, humann resource managers and customer service associates. The companyh will add 1,000 or more workers in California, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, Soutjh Carolina, Utah and Virginia. But the generally grim climated raisesthe question: Is anybody out therw other than Wal-Mart on the hunt for new employees? The answer in one major Southeast market is The Charlotte Business Journal reports that there are jobs to be had even in ’e hard-hit hometown, where local unemployment is over 11 You just have to know where to “The defining feature for who is hiring is not the size of the but quite frankly, what is that firm doing?
” N.C. States economist Mike Walden told thebusinesss journal. Notably, among the firm s the Charlotte Business Journal cited as in thehirinvg game: discount retailers, just like Wal-Mart.