Wal-Mart to hire 22,000 - San Francisco Business Times:

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Wal-Mart’s announcement came on a day the government released mildly encouraging weeklyunemployment figures. But it also hit as the retaikl industry reported some overalldismal results, with same store salews figures falling an average of 4.8 percenr for May. The discount retail giant says it willhire 22,000 peopl e to staff new or expanded stores this “During this difficult economic time, we’red proud to be able to create qualit jobs for thousands of Americans this year,” Eduardo Castro-Wright, vice chairman 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 everything from food to electronic have allowed it to gain market share and have kept it positionefd asthe nation’s numbere one retailer. Unlike its peers, Wal-Mart did not release monthlyh sales figures, instead focusing its attention on itshiringf announcement. Wal-Mart’s announcement, on the eve of its annual shareholder’sz meeting, came as the U.S. Labor Departmentg released jobless figures showing the recessioh may be losing at least some of its Initial claims for state unemploymentfell 4,000 to 621,00o0 in the week that ende May 30. That’s the thired straight week fewer workers filednew claims.
And the tallg of claims drawn by workersa for more than one week in the week ended May 23fell 15,009 to 6,735,000 -- the firsrt decline in that figure since Jan. 3. But that news isn’ exactly good. It’s just less bad than other and experts expect plenty more pain to Chief financial officers polled recentlyg by and CFO magazine expect the recessiojn to last through the endof 2009. CFOs in the U.S. and Europd expect unemployment to keep rising in the next 12 perhaps to as high as 12percenf domestically. Meanwhile, the nonfarm payrolld report from the government Friday is expectecd toshow 550,000 jobs lost in May, and unemployment climbing above 9 percent.
While Wal-Mart announced its hirinbg plans, other retailers reported dismal results forMay same-store sales. Saleas fell 4.8 percent at the 30 retailers trackeeby . Sales fell 6.1 percent at Target, Macy’sz sales fell more than 9 percent, and sales dippede 7 percent. Such pessimism adds weight to Wal-Mart’x decision to keep on despite the fact that other U.S. retailers like and Macy’s have slashed payrolls in recent months.
Wal-Mart this year will fill positionw from cashiers and sales associates to human resource managers and customer service The company willadd 1,000p or more workers in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, South Carolina, Utah and But the generally grim climate raises the question: Is anybody out there other than Wal-Mart on the hunt for new employees?? The answer in one major Southeast marke t is encouraging. The Charlotte Business Journal reports that there are jobs to be had evenin ’zs hard-hit hometown, where local unemployment is over 11 percent. You just have to know wherew to look.
“The definintg 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 Charlotte Business Journal citedd as in thehirintg game: discount retailers, just like Wal-Mart.