Wal-Mart says it will create 22,000 jobs in 2009

Source: Associated Press

BENTONVILLE, Ark. – As Wal-Mart Stores Inc. opens about 150 new or expanded stores in the U.S. in 2009, the company expects to hire about 22,000 people for new positions.

Those positions include plenty of cashiers and stock clerks, but the world's largest retailer will also be adding store managers, pharmacists and personnel workers.

<snip>

Wal-Mart, still the target of criticism from union-backed groups for its pay and benefits, has improved its health insurance coverage and opened it to full- and part-time employees. The company says 94 percent of its employees have health coverage, either through Wal-Mart or another family member.

"At Wal-Mart, we offer competitive pay and benefits and real opportunities for our associates to advance and build careers," Wal-Mart Vice Chairman Eduardo Castro-Wright said. "Job creation is just one way in which we're working hard every day to help people across this country live better."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090604/ap_on_bi_ge/us_wal_mart_jobs

how many are under the Wal-mart plan, I wonder? I like the way they phrase it..."either through Wal-Mart or another family member".

Ok, that was underhanded.

Walmart is discussing how much it has recently improved company benefits--including healthcare. So...they actually
point to the statistic that 93 percent of their workers have healthcare, through Walmart or another family member.

How blatantly manipulative can this company be?

They're now tooting their own horn--about stellar benefits--when the high statistics they tout are due to insurance
from spouses who work at other companies.

Sheesh.

Do they think we're dumb?

:eyes:

They said through another family member. I'm thinking that that is their way of saying "another company or government benefits".

Are those kids working at Walmart still eligible for Medicaid as long as they are under a certain age or going to school?

Not impressed.

My town has gotten two Wal-Marts and we did not lose any businesses because of it.

That's probably why you haven't seen any businesses close. However, Walmart doesn't just kill small businesses. Walmart surely had a part in killing Circuit City. Of course, Circuit City had a part in its own demise because they tried to do things the old fashioned way- charging too much for things most of the time and having a "Huge Sale!". Hell, even at their liquidation their prices were still too high to compete.

The damage is pretty much done.

Although the sentence seems straight forward and simple stated, I am not sure what you mean.

...because of Wal-Mart. I should have said small and large businesses, because the opening of a Wal-Mart starts a chain reaction of job losses. Near and far.

Wal-Mart is poison.

Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price

Motley Fool and others ran an article saying essentially that Walmart had peaked, that its stock had nowhere to go, that Costco was the one to watch these days.

I can agree that Walmart may have peaked for the time being, but I can't see Costco as a threat. I simply don't need to buy things in 25lb bags and two gallon jugs.

Anyway, I have to say that while I think that working for Walmart would be hell, I have spoken with a couple of people who have worked their way up from the floor and who actually view the company favorably. Two of these people are women who, quite frankly, were it not for Walmart would probably not make more than minimum wage. They lack education. They can't get by on their looks. They lack the upbringing to BS their way past their lack of qualifications.

We can't kill Walmart- so we need to turn it.

people MAY want to start stocking up on 25 lb bags and two gallon jugs.

Just sayin'

In the Great Depression if you had no food, there were those who would feed you. But household supplies were hard to come by. She said one of her neighbors had one bedroom filled with soap powder, paper products, and things like that. When the war came, she was ready.

You forgot the plastic and duct tape to go with stockin' up...

Who would possibly say something so stu...? oh, it's you. Go figure.

and open some smaller stores more places... like across the street from busy superwalmarts.

retribution if they attempt to unionize.

Yay! I want one of THOSE jobs.

It has nothing to do with their profit line, right?

:sarcasm:

Canadian and American workers are forced to work at Slave-Mart because our manufacturing base has been outsourced over the last 25 years by the aristocratic, corporatist, ruling class elitists who fucking HATE the working class and won’t be happy until we are all making slave wages.

All 22,000 jobs will be minimum wage, right?

500,000 applicants. Just the way corporate america wants it.

They won't be the highest paying jobs but MI needs any jobs it can get right now.

One of the things we're told is, "never, never, never back up a trailer to a Walmart distribution center loading dock. It's okay to dock to a Sam's Club DC, but never a Walmart DC." I had to ask. Turns out the Walmart division of that company got a wild hair up its ass and decided to start charging trucking companies fees to unload trailers if the driver docks instead of dropping his trailer. They're called lumper fees. Normally, what happens is someone will hire a handful of guys and contract with a warehouse to unload trucks, and your lumper fee goes toward paying these hardworking independent businessmen. The problem is, Walmart's lumpers are Walmart employees!

Who gets screwed? Owner-operators who aren't contracted to a big carrier. Those guys only have one trailer. They can't afford to leave it in a Walmart DC drop yard, so they give a few hundred dollars to Walmart to get unloaded. (I asked about this too: Walmart doesn't allow non-Walmart employees on their docks.)

Now understand I don't mind paying lumper fees when it's necessary, but paying a Walmart employee to unload my truck is like paying a Walmart shelf stocker to show me where the cat food is. Isn't that their job?