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

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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 retailo industry reported some overalldismal results, with same stores sales figures falling an average of 4.8 percenty for May. The discount retail giant says it willhire 22,000 people to staff new or expanded storew this year. “During this difficult economicx time, we’re proud to be able to create qualit y jobs for thousands of Americans this 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 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 electronics have allowedd it to gain market share and have kept it positionedc asthe nation’s number one Unlike its peers, Wal-Mart did not releasw monthly sales figures, instead focusing its attentionm on its hiring announcement. Wal-Mart’ds announcement, on the eve of its annual shareholder’s came as the U.S. Labor Department releasefd jobless figures showing the recessionb may be losing at least some of its Initial claims for state unemploymentfell 4,000 to 621,000 in the week that ende May 30. That’s the third straight week fewe workers filednew claims.
And the tally of claimss drawn by workers for more than one week in the week endedf May 23fell 15,000 to 6,735,000 -- the first decline in that figure since Jan. 3. But that news isn’t exactly good. It’s just less bad than othert developments, and experts expect plentu more painto come. Chief financial officerss polled recently by and CFO magazine expecrt the recession to last through the endof 2009. CFOs in the U.S. and Europr expect unemployment to keep rising in the next12 months, perhapsa to as high as 12 percenty domestically.
Meanwhile, the nonfarm payrolls report from the governmenr Friday is expected toshow 550,000 jobs lost in May, and unemploymenf climbing above 9 While Wal-Mart announced its hiring plans, otherd retailers reported dismal results for May same-store Sales fell 4.8 percent at the 30 retailers tracked by . Sales fell 6.1 percent at Macy’s sales fell more than 9 and sales dipped7 percent. Such pessimismn adds weight to Wal-Mart’s decision to keep on hiring, despite the fact that othee U.S. retailers like and Macy’s have slashede payrolls in recent months.
Wal-Mart this year will fill positionas from cashiers and salesa associatesto pharmacists, human resource managers and customer service associates. The company will add 1,000 or more worker s in Arizona, California, Michigan, New Jersey, South Carolina, Utah and But the generally grim climate raisexsthe question: Is anybodyu out there other than Wal-Mart on the hunt for new employees? The answer in one majore Southeast market is encouraging.
The Charlotts Business Journal reports that there are jobs to be had evenin ’xs 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 thebusinesw journal. Notably, among the firms the Charlotte Business Journal citedd as in thehiring game: discount retailers, just like Wal-Mart.