Walmart to Hire 20,000 Supply Chain Employees for Holiday Season

It’s hard to believe another holiday season is upon us this quickly, but it is.

Retail giant Walmart is already preparing for the upcoming holiday season by aiming to hire 20,000 supply chain employees.

The company said the jobs would be a mix of full-time and part-time work but would be permanent positions.

Walmart, which is already the nation’s largest private employer, said the roles will range from order fillers to freight handlers at the company’s more than 250 distribution centers, fulfillment centers and transportation offices.

The average wage for a supply chain associate is $20.37 per hour, Walmart said in its corporate blog post. The company said it will hold special hiring events on Sept. 8 and 9.

It was last month that the company said it was seeing strong demand for items such as luggage and back to school supplies.

Chief financial officer Brett Biggs said on a second-quarter earnings call that the company has increased lead times for orders and chartered its own dedicated vessels to speed up imports. He remarked that “out-of-stocks in certain general merchandise categories are running above normal, given strong sales and supply constraints.”

CEO Doug McMillon said in a news release that the company grabbed more market share in grocery, one of its core businesses. According to the chief exeuctive, the company has also made progress in new areas, adding thousands of online sellers to its third-party marketplace and nearly doubling advertising sales in Walmart U.S. in the quarter versus a year ago.

Here’s what the company reported for the fiscal second quarter ended July 31, according to Refinitiv consensus estimates. Earnings per share was $1.78 adjusted vs. $1.57 expected while revenue was $141.05 billion vs. $137.17 billion expected.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.