Walmart to hire over 50,000 workers in Q1

Walmart plans to add more than 50,000 associates across its U.S. operations in the fiscal 2023 first quarter to help drive growth and innovation.

Chief People Officer Donna Morris said in a blog post Wednesday that the hirings will fill a range of store, club, supply chain and corporate technology roles, including new and unique positions in the field and company offices. The announcement comes a day after the Bentonville, Ark.-based retail giant, which has almost 1.6 million U.S associates and 2.3 million worldwide, unveiled plans to hire over 5,000 technology associates globally in fiscal 2023.

“We have jobs across functions and sectors — merchants, marketers, pharmacists, optometrists, software engineers, data scientists, distribution, store and club managers,” Morris said in the posting. “We believe our focus on the growth and mobility of our associates is second to none. We promote thousands of associates each month across our stores, clubs, supply chain facilities and campus offices.”

Walmart has steadily added jobs in its distribution and e-commerce fulfillment centers, including at automated facilities.

Walmart’s hirings in calendar 2021 included 5,500 pharmacists and pharmacy managers — the highest number in a one-year period — as well as more than 13,000 pharmacy technicians nearly 4,500 truck drivers. And in fiscal 2021, Walmart promoted more than 300,000 U.S. associates to broader, higher-paying roles.

Related:Walmart to build new distribution center in Houston area

“Approximately 75% of our U.S. store, club and field management started their careers as hourly associates,” according to Morris. “We provide unparalleled opportunities to advance from entry-level associates to positions of greater responsibility and higher pay, on average within seven months.”

Walmart’s starting wage is now up to $30 an hour for selected roles in certain markets, “as we continue to hire great talent to hourly and salaried roles in our stores, clubs, distribution centers and fulfillment centers,” Morris wrote in the blog.

In September, Walmart said it aimed to hire about 150,000 new U.S. store associates for the holiday selling season. Walmart U.S. Chief People Officer Julie Murphy wrote in a blog at the time that Walmart’s average U.S. hourly wage stood at $16.40, with store positions paying up to $34 an hour. Walmart previously reported that it pays supply chain associates an average hourly wage of $20.37.

Earlier in September, Walmart also unveiled plans to add 20,000 new supply-chain associates in special hiring events. The company, too, announced in a company memo that it would raise wages at least $1 an hour for more than 565,000 of its approximately 1.2 million store associates. The raises, effective Sept. 25, were earmarked for associates in the front-end, food and consumables, and general merchandise work groups. The increase marked Walmart’s third wage hike over the past year. At Walmart’s 2021 Investment Community Meeting in February, President and CEO Doug McMillon said the company was boosting its investment in employee wages, lifting associates’ average hourly pay to over $15 an hour. That included plans to raise wages for another 425,000 frontline associates after hikes for 165,000 associates in the fall.

Related:Walmart turns in strong U.S. performance for fiscal 2022

“Our associates serve 230 million customers weekly and are key to delivering on our commitment to help save money and live better,” Morris said in her blog on Wednesday. “Enabling the success of our associates is key to delivering our purpose.”

In a blog post yesterday, Suresh Kumar, chief technology officer and chief development officer at Walmart, said the thousands of new technology hires will include employees for new tech hubs in Toronto and Atlanta, “two cities with formidable tech talent and strong ties to Walmart.”

“This year, we’re focused on hiring cybersecurity professionals, architects, developers, software engineers, data scientists, data engineers, technical program managers and product managers. Our growth includes entering new locations and expanding our presence in communities we call home,” Kumar explained.

During 2021, the Walmart Global Tech organization saw its workforce expand 85% in data engineering, 45% in data science and 31% in software engineering, the three fastest-growing technology fields.

“With the addition of Atlanta and Toronto, Walmart Global Tech now has 17 hubs that span from Silicon Valley and Northwest Arkansas to Dallas and India,” reported Kumar. “Our growth includes continuing to build teams in two locations we entered last year: Seattle, Washington, and Chennai, India.”

Walmart Global Tech now encompasses more than 20,000 associates globally.