Wal-Mart touts job growth ahead of inauguration

NEW YORK• W al-Mart Stores Inc.’s slowdown in opening new stores — part of an effort to cope with sluggish brick- and- mortar sales — is now being touted as a growth plan.

On Tuesday, the company announced its intention to open, expand or relocate 59 Wal- Mart and Sam’s Club locations this year. While that adds 10,000 retail jobs, the expansion is far smaller than in many previous years and would increase its headcount by less than one per cent in the U.S.

Wal- Mart faces more pressure to show that it’s creating U.S. jobs ahead of Friday’s inauguration of President- elect Donald Trump, who has made the issue a signature of his campaign. In a statement Tuesday, Wal- Mart pointed to a plan for US $6.8 billion in U.S. capital spending, including the construction of stores and distribution centres, though it previously announced that number last year.

“Trump is not afraid to get out in the press and tweet,” said Brian Yarbrough, an analyst at Edward Jones. “This is another sign of them trying to get out in front of things.”

Wal- Mart is the largest private employer in the U.S ., casting a big spotlight on the company as Trump heads for the White House. It has almost 1.5 million workers in the U. S., out of 2.3 million total. In addition to the 10,000 retail positions, the new and expanded stores will bring an estimated 24,000 construction jobs this year, the company said.

“We’re going to be selective in what we’re opening,” said Randy Hargrove, a spokesman for the Bentonville, Ark.- based company. “We know we’re driving our U. S. growth.”

The company joins many of the largest U. S. businesses in boasting about job creation. General Motors Co. announced a US$ 1 billion investment plan on Tuesday, though the money mostly came from models and plants that have been long in the works. The nation’s top automaker said it will add or retain about 7,000 salaried and hourly workers, including almost 2,000 in domestic factories. Last week, Amazon. com Inc. vowed to hire more than 100,000 people in the U.S. in the next 18 months.

Trump saluted GM and WalMart in a tweet on Tuesday, thanking them for “starting the big jobs push back into the U.S.!”

But when Wal- Mart originally announced its capital- spending plan in October, it was characterized as a slowdown of new store openings. The company told investors it would count more on e-commerce and existing stores.

Wal- Mart “plans to slow newstore openings, while increasing investments in e- commerce, technology, store remodels and other customer initiatives,” the company said at the time.

The traditionally brick-and-mortar retailer has made a big e- commerce push, including last year’s US$ 3.3 billion acquisition of Jet. com. While the acquisition seems to have helped boost online sales growth, CEO Doug McMillon said on Tuesday that there’s still a long way to go.