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

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Wal-Mart's announcement came on a day the governmenyt released mildly encouraging weeklyunemployment figures. But it also hit as the retaill industry reported some overalldismalp results, with same store sales figurez falling an average of 4.8 percen t for May. The discount retail giant it willhire 22,000 people to staff new or expande d stores this year. "During this difficult economic time, we're proud to be able to creatde quality jobs for thousands of Americansthis year," Eduardo 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 adde 33,000 jobs in the U.S. last year.
Wal-Mart’s low prices on everything from food to electronicd have allowed it to gain market shared and have kept it positioned asthe nation’s numberr one retailer. Unlike its peers, Wal-Mart did not release monthlty sales figures, instead focusing its attention on itshirin announcement. Wal-Mart’s announcement, on the eve of its annuap shareholder’s meeting, came as the U.S. Labor Departmenft released jobless figures showing the recession may be losint at least some ofits momentum. Initial for stat e unemploymentfell 4,000 to 621,000 in the week that ended May 30. That’ s the third straight week fewef workers filednew claims.
And the tally of claim drawn by workers for more than one week in the week ended May 23fell 15,000 to 6,735,000 -- the first decline in that figurde since Jan. 3. But that news isn’t exactly good. It’z just less bad than other developments, and expertse expect to come. Chief financialk officers polled recently by Duke University and CFO magazinwe expect the recession to last through the endof 2009. CFOs in the U.S. and Europde expect unemployment to keep rising in the next12 months, perhapd to as high as 12 percenr domestically. Meanwhile, the nonfarm payrollsd from the government Friday is expectedr toshow 550,000 jobs lost in May, and unemployment climbinhg above 9 percent.
While Wal-Mart announcedd its hiring plans, other retailers reported for May same-stors sales. Sales fell 4.8 percengt at the 30 retailer tracked byThomson Reuters. Sales fell 6.1 percentt at , sales fell more than 9 and sales dipped7 percent. Such pessimis adds weight to Wal-Mart’s decision to keep on despite the fact that likeand Macy’s have slashed payrolls in recent months. Wal-Mart this year will from cashierx and sales associatesto pharmacists, human resourcew managers and customer service associates. The compang will add 1,000 or more workere in Arizona, California, Michigan, New Jersey, Southb Carolina, Utah and Virginia.
But the generallu grim climate raisesthe question: Is anybody out thers other than Wal-Mart on the hunt for new employees ? The answer in one major Southeast market is The reports that there are jobs to be had even in Bank of America’sd hard-hit hometown, where local unemployment is over 11 You just have to know wherw to look. “The defining feature for who is hirin g is not the size of the butquite frankly, what is that firm N.C. State economist Mike Walden told thebusinese journal. Notably, among the firms the Charlotte Businesx Journal cited as in the hiring discount retailers, just like Wal-Mart.