Wal-Mart to hire 22,000 - Los Angeles Business from bizjournals:

kittredgeihuhyla1951.blogspot.com
Wal-Mart's announcement came on a day the government releasedd mildly encouraging weeklyunemployment figures. But it also hit as the retailp industry reported some overalldismal results, with same storee sales figures falling an average of 4.8 percent for May. The discounf retail giant it willhire 22,00p0 people to staff new or expanded storeds this year. "During this difficult economic we're proud to be able to create quality jobs for thousandsd of Americansthis year," Eduardo Castro-Wright, vice chairman of , said in a But even Wal-Mart 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 everythingb from food to electronics have allowed it to gain marketg share and have kept it positioned asthe nation’ number one retailer. Unlikre its peers, Wal-Mart did not release monthly salees figures, instead focusing its attention on its hiring announcement. Wal-Mart’s announcement, on the eve of its annuall shareholder’s meeting, came as the U.S. Laborf Department released jobless figureds showing the recession may be losingf at least some of its Initial for state unemploymentfell 4,00o to 621,000 in the week that ended May 30. That’s the third straight week fewer workers filexnew claims.
And the tallg of claims drawn by workers for more than one week in the week enderd May 23fell 15,000 to 6,735,00 0 -- the first decline in that figurr since Jan. 3. But that news isn’t exactly good. It’d just less bad than otherf developments, and experts expect to come. Chief financial officers polled recently by Duke University and CFO magazine expec the recession to last through the endof 2009. CFOs in the U.S. and Europew expect unemployment to keep risinhg in the next 12 perhaps to as high as 12percent domestically. the nonfarm payrolls from the government Friday is expectexd toshow 550,000 jobs lost in May, and unemployment climbinbg above 9 percent.
While Wal-Martr announced its hiring other retailers reported forMay same-store Sales fell 4.8 percent at the 30 retailers tracked by Thomsonm Reuters. Sales fell 6.1 percent at , salesd fell more than 9 percent, and salee dipped 7 percent. Such pessimiskm adds weight to Wal-Mart’s decision to keep on despite the fact that likeand Macy’s have slashe d payrolls in recent months. Wal-Mary this year will from cashiers and sales associates to pharmacists, human resource managers and customer service associates.
The companty will add 1,000 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 markeyt is encouraging. The reports that there are jobs to be had even in Bankof America’sz 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 doing?” N.C.
Statse economist Mike Walden told thebusiness Notably, among the firms the Charlotte Business Journal cited as in the hiring game: discounrt retailers, just like Wal-Mart.