Walmart Inc. WMT 0.57% said it aims to hire 150,000 workers ahead of the busy holiday shopping season, another sign that retailers are rushing to staff stores and warehouses in a tight U.S. labor market.
Walmart, the country’s largest private employer with around 1.6 million U.S. workers, has announced a string of hiring goals in recent months. As the holidays approach Walmart wants to “ensure we’re ready to help customers,” Julie Murphy, chief people officer for Walmart U.S., said in a blog post.
Most of the positions will be offered as long-term store jobs, not seasonal jobs, Ms. Murphy said. Earlier in September the retailer said it aimed to hire 20,000 warehouse staff to keep products flowing to stores and shoppers’ homes. It has also raised pay for most roles, increasing its minimum wage to $12 an hour. The company says its average U.S. hourly wage is $16.40.
Heading into the holiday’s last year Walmart said it aimed to hire around 20,000 seasonal workers in ecommerce warehouses to meet surging online demand due to pandemic buying trends. Walmart had hired over 500,000 workers during the year to help with the surge in demand for pandemic products such as food and household goods, it said at the time.
Amazon. AMZN -0.38% com Inc. said earlier this month it aims to hire 125,000 more workers after hiring hundreds of thousands of employees during the pandemic. Target Corp. aims to hire 100,000 seasonal workers and around 30,000 warehouse employees.
Most retailers are working to hire large numbers of staff ahead of the holidays at a time when workers are scarce in many industries. Businesses from retailers and restaurants to amusement parks and manufacturers are competing for workers, in some cases offering pay raises, hiring bonuses and other perks.
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