Fayetteville, Arkansas: Wal-Mart Stores, the world's largest retailer, said it will create 500,000 jobs during the next five years to help fuel global sales.
The company announced the plan and a $15 billion (Dh55 billion) share buyback programme at its annual shareholder meeting Friday in Fayetteville, Arkansas, which about 16,000 people attended.
Wal-Mart, with more than 2 million employees worldwide, anticipates hiring at a rapid rate internationally, in markets such as Mexico, Brazil and China where sales are advancing, Chief Executive Officer Mike Duke said.
Opening stores
US hiring will depend partly on opening stores in urban markets, Eduardo Castro-Wright, US stores chief, said.
"What gives the opportunity for job growth is our business growth," Duke told reporters Friday in Bentonville, Arkansas, the company's base. Wal-Mart isn't prepared to provide hiring plans by country, although "we look to international for a greater rate of growth," he said.
Unemployment in the US has put a "great deal of pressure on our customer base," Duke said. Rising gasoline prices reduced the frequency of visits, contributing to lower sales by older stores in the first quarter, Castro-Wright said.
Castro-Wright affirmed Wal-Mart's earnings forecast May 18 that US same-store sales will range from a decline of 2 per cent to an increase of 1 per cent in the second quarter. Comparable-store sales have fallen for four straight quarters.
Regular gasoline throughout the US has averaged $2.72 a gallon so far this year, an increase of 35 per cent from $2.02 during the same period last year, according to AAA, the nation's biggest motoring organisation.
"These external headwinds are real," Castro-Wright told shareholders. Competition from other retailers "is stiffer than ever," he said.
US payrolls rose by 431,000 last month after a gain of 290,000 in April, figures from the Labour Department showed Friday. The increase was smaller than the 536,000 median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of economists and reflected a 411,000 jump in government hiring of temporary help for the 2010 census.
