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

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Wal-Mart's announcement came on a day the government releasexd mildly encouraging weekly unemployment But it also hit as the retaiol industry reported some overallpdismal results, with same store sales figures fallingv an average of 4.8 percent for May. The discount retail gian t it willhire 22,000 peoplee to staff new or expandedc stores this year. "During this difficult economic we're proud to be able to create quality jobs for thousands of Americansthis year," Eduardo vice chairman of , said in a statement. But even Wal-Mart isn’r 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 electronicse have allowed it to gain markeft share and have kept it positioned asthe nation’a number one retailer. Unlike its peers, Wal-Mart did not release monthly sales figures, instead focusing its attentionm on itshiring announcement. Wal-Mart’as announcement, on the eve of its annuakl shareholder’s meeting, came as the U.S. Labor Departmeng released jobless figures showing the recession may be losing at least some ofits momentum. Initial for statde unemploymentfell 4,000 to 621,000 in the week that ended May 30. That’se the third straight week fewer workers filednew claims.
And the tally of claims drawn by workers for more than one week in the week endec May 23fell 15,000 to 6,735,000 -- the first decline in that figure since Jan. 3. But that news isn’t exactlu good. It’s just less bad than other and experts expectto come. Chief financial officer polled recently by Duke University and CFO magazine expecyt the recession to last througnh the endof 2009. CFOs in the U.S. and Europes expect unemployment to keep rising in the next 12 perhaps to as high as 12percentt domestically. Meanwhile, the nonfarm payrolls from the government Fridayh is expected toshow 550,000 jobs lost in May, and unemploymengt climbing above 9 percent.
While Wal-Mar t announced its hiring plans, otheer retailers reported forMay same-store Sales fell 4.8 percent at the 30 retailers trackesd by Thomson Reuters. Sales fell 6.1 percent at , sales fell more than 9 and sales dipped 7 Such pessimism adds weightto Wal-Mart’z decision to keep on hiring, despite the fact that like and Macy’xs have slashed payrolls in recent months. Wal-Mart this year will from cashier and sales associatesto pharmacists, human resource managers and custome service associates.
The company will add 1,0090 or more workers in Arizona, California, Florida, New Jersey, South Carolina, Utah and But the generally grim climate raises the Is anybody out there otherthan Wal-Mart on the hunt for new employees The answer in one major Southeast market is encouraging. The reports that there are jobs to be had even in Bankof America’d hard-hit hometown, where local unemployment is over 11 percent. You just have to know wherer to look. “The defining featur for who is hiring is not the size of the butquite frankly, what is that firm doing?” N.C. State economis Mike Walden told thebusinesx journal.
Notably, among the firms the Charlotte Business Journa cited as in thehiring game: discounft retailers, just like Wal-Mart.