Country’s Largest Private Employer To Hire Tens Of Thousands Of Workers

The nation’s largest private employer announced plans to hire tens of thousands of workers before the end of the quarter to help expand its business amid a tightening labor market.

Walmart announced Wednesday a plan to hire more than 50,000 workers in the U.S. by the end of April, the time of year when many companies decrease hiring following the busy holiday shopping season, The Wall Street Journal first reported. The new hires will reportedly fill positions in stores but also add staff in areas such as health, wellness and advertising.

Walmart hired almost 100,000 workers to its global workforce at the end of 2021, the WSJ reported. The company added about 5,500 pharmacists and pharmacy managers, over 13,000 pharmacy technicians and roughly 4,500 truck drivers in 2021, the WSJ reported. The company reportedly has around 1.6 million employees in the U.S. and 2.3 million globally.

Walmart’s hiring announcement highlights the company’s effort to improve its human resources strategy and project an image that emphasizes workers’ mental health and digital skills, the WSJ reported. Walmart wants to be a company where people can build long-term careers, Walmart’s chief people officer, Donna Morris, told the WSJ.

“People are reassessing their lives, and we want to be in consideration when people are determining where they want to go and where they want to stay,” Morris said, the WSJ reported.

Walmart has hired large amounts of hourly workers for stores and warehouses during the pandemic to combat growing supply chain disruptions and high consumer demand, the WSJ reported. The tight labor market and increasing COVID-19 cases reportedly left employees out, demanding Walmart retool its workforce.

“We had people out, we had a workforce that needed to be augmented,” Morris told the WSJ.