Wal-Mart to hire 22,000 - Houston Business Journal:

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Wal-Mart’s announcement came on a day the government released mildlyu encouraging weeklyunemployment figures. But it also hit as the retaipl industry reported some overalldismal results, with same stor e sales figures falling an averaged of 4.8 percent for May. The discounr retail giant says it willhire 22,00 people to staff new or expandexd stores this year. “During this difficult economidc time, we’re proud to be able to creatwe quality jobs for thousands of Americans this Eduardo Castro-Wright, vice chairman of , said in a statement. But even Wal-Marg (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 everythingt from food to electronics have allowed it to gain marker share and have kept it positioned asthe nation’sd number one retailer. Unlike its Wal-Mart did not release monthly sales figures, insteasd focusing its attention on itshiring Wal-Mart’s announcement, on the eve of its annual shareholder’w meeting, came as the U.S. Labor Departmentf released jobless figures showing the recessiob may be losing at leasty some ofits momentum. Initial claimsa for state unemploymentfell 4,000 to 621,000 in the week that endex May 30.
That’s the third straight week fewerr workers filednew claims. And the tally of claims drawjn by workers for more than one week in the week endesd May 23fell 15,000 to 6,735,000 -- the first declinr in that figure since Jan. 3. But that news isn’t exactlh good. It’s just less bad than othee developments, and experts expect plenty more painto come. Chiev financial officers polled recentlhy by and CFO magazine expect the recessiob to last through the endof 2009. CFOs in the U.S. and Europse expect unemployment to keep risinfg in the next12 months, perhaps to as high as 12 percentt domestically.
Meanwhile, the nonfarm payrollsw report from the government Friday is expectec toshow 550,000 jobs lost in May, and unemploymenf climbing above 9 percent. While Wal-Mart announced its hiringf plans, other retailers reportedf dismal results forMay same-store Sales fell 4.8 percent at the 30 retailersw tracked by . Sales fell 6.1 percent at Macy’s sales fell more than 9 percent, and salex dipped 7 percent. Such pessimism adds weight to Wal-Mart’se decision to keep on hiring, despite the fact that otherf U.S. retailers like and Macy’s have slasher payrolls in recent months.
Wal-Mart this year will fill positionas from cashiers and sales associateesto pharmacists, human resource managers and customer service associates. The company will add 1,000 or more workers in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, New South Carolina, Utah and But the generally grim climat e raisesthe question: Is anybody out therre other than Wal-Mart on the hunt for new employees ? The answer in one major Southeast market is encouraging. The Charlottr Business Journal reports that there are jobs to be had evenin ’ hard-hit hometown, where loca l unemployment is over 11 percent.
You just have to know where to “The defining 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 cited as in thehiring game: discount retailers, just like Wal-Mart.