Walmart to create more jobs in the US

Walmart, which employs almost 1.5 million people in the US, is planning to create more jobs and invest in local communities across the country.

The company’s investments will support an estimated 34,000 jobs through continued expansion and improvement in the company’s store network as well as e-commerce services, while providing specialty training for more than 225,000 of the company’s frontline associates.

Walmart has already created approximately 10,000 retail jobs through the opening of 59 new, expanded and relocated Walmart and Sam’s Club facilities as well as e-commerce services.

“Walmart is investing to better serve customers,” emphasises Dan Bartlett, Walmart’s executive vice president for corporate affairs. “With a presence in thousands of communities and a vast supplier network, we know we play an important role in supporting and creating American jobs. Our 2017 plans to grow our business – and our support for innovation in the textile industry – will have a meaningful impact across the country.”

Walmart is planning $6.8 billion of capital investments in the US in the coming fiscal year, including construction and remodelling of stores, clubs and distribution centres, as well as the expansion of new services such as online grocery pick-up.

That’s not all. By July 2017, Walmart will open 160 new training academies – where frontline hourly supervisors and assistant store managers receive hands-on training in retail fundamentals, leadership skills and the specifics of how to run individual store departments – around the US, bringing the total number of academies to 200. More than 225,000 associates will receive up to six weeks of specialty training and graduate from the academies in 2017.