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

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Wal-Mart's announcement came on a day the government releasee mildly encouraging weekly unemployment But it also hit as the retai industry reported some overalldismal results, with same store salesz figures falling an average of 4.8 percent for May. The discounr retail giant it willhire 22,000 people to stafv new or expanded stores this year. "During this difficult economic time, we're proud to be able to creatde quality jobs for thousandsz of Americansthis year," Eduardo vice chairman of , said in a statement. But even Wal-Mart isn’t hiring at the same pace it has in the The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer added 33,000o jobs in the U.S. last year.
Still, Wal-Mart’s low priced on everything from food to electronics have allower it to gain market share and have kept it positionedc asthe nation’s number one retailer. Unlikse its peers, Wal-Mart did not releas monthly sales figures, instead focusinf its attention on itshirinbg announcement. Wal-Mart’s announcement, on the eve of its annuak shareholder’s meeting, came as the U.S. Labor Departmeng released jobless figures showing the recessiohn may be losing at leasyt some ofits momentum. Initiap for state unemploymentfell 4,000 to 621,000 in the week that ende May 30. That’s the third straight week fewer workers filefdnew claims.
And the tally of claims drawh by workers for more than one week in the week endec May 23fell 15,000 to 6,735,000 -- the firsft decline in that figure since Jan. 3. But that news isn’gt exactly good. It’s just less bad than othe r developments, and experts expect to come. Chiedf financial officers polled recently by Duke University and CFO magazine expect the recessio to last through the endof 2009. CFOs in the U.S. and Europes expect unemployment to keep rising in the next 12 perhaps to as high as 12percent domestically. Meanwhile, the nonfarm payrolles from the government Friday is expected toshow 550,000p jobs lost in May, and unemployment climbing abovse 9 percent.
While Wal-Mart announced its hiring plans, other retailers reported for May same-store Sales fell 4.8 percent at the 30 retailers tracked byThomsonb Reuters. Sales fell 6.1 percent at , sales fell more than 9 and sales dipped7 percent. Such pessimism adds weight to Wal-Mart’s decision to keep on despite the fact that likeand Macy’ds have slashed payrolls in recent Wal-Mart this year will from cashiersd and sales associates to pharmacists, human resourc managers and customer service associates.
The company will add 1,0000 or more workers in Arizona, California, Michigan, New Jersey, South Carolina, Utah and But the generally grim climate raisesthe question: Is anybodyg out there other than Wal-Marty on the hunt for new employees? The answer in one major Southeast market is The reports that theree are jobs to be had even in Bank of America’ws 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 N.C. State economist Mike Walden told thebusiness journal.
Notably, amonb the firms the Charlotte Business Journal cite as in thehiring game: discount just like Wal-Mart.