Following Amazon’s recent announcement that the e-commerce giant will be hiring over 100,000 jobs by 2018, Walmart announced they plan to hire 34,000 jobs and improve training for their associates.
On Tuesday Walmart revealed that they will be investing in their company and in turn will be hiring 34,000 jobs. How is the company going to achieve their new year’s resolution? According to their press release, the company explains that they will continue to expand and improve their stores and their online shopping platform. In fact, the company reports that they are planning on nearly $7 billion in capital investments. The investments will fund construction, remodeling of stores and distribution centers, along with their new service Online Grocery Pickup.
But, Walmart is not stopping there. The company also outlines a new plan that will provide training programs for more than 200,000 current employees. Furthermore, Walmart will launch 160 new training facilities around the United States. Associates will be able to receive up to 6 weeks of speciality training. At these training sessions, the company plans on training supervisors and assistant store managers leadership, retail management skills and how to run store departments.
“The training is designed to help associates be successful in their careers and in meeting the changing needs of customers,” Walmart explained on their website.
In addition, the Walmart Foundation alongside the U.S. Conference of Mayors will be announcing grants to help increase innovation in the textile manufacturing industry. The grant program will be accomplished through the U.S. Manufacturing Innovation Fund, which was launched in 2014 in order to focus on the development of U.S. manufactured products. Moreover, Walmart plans on providing $10 million in grants over the course of five years.
Walmart also announced that they will continue to purchase an additional $250 billion in American-made products, which the company estimates will help create one million jobs.
Walmart executive vice president for corporate affairs explained that Walmart is investing to “better serve customers”.
“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 county,” Bartlett added.
Walmart is not the only company helping put Americans back to work. Amazon announced last week that the company the company is focused on creating jobs in the United States and plans on expanding their workforce from 180,00 to 280,00 by next year.