The jobs market - WalMart
What with Obamacare being mandatory for employees working more than thirty hours/week, employers are making changes.
From
Reuters:
Exclusive - Wal-Mart's everyday hiring strategy: Add more temps
Wal-Mart Stores Inc has in recent months been only hiring temporary workers at many of its U.S. stores, the first time the world's largest retailer has done so outside of the holiday shopping season.
A Reuters survey of 52 stores run by the largest U.S. private employer in the past month, including one in every U.S. state, showed that 27 were hiring only temps, 20 were hiring a combination of regular full, part-time and temp jobs, and five were not hiring at all. The survey was based on interviews with managers, sales staff and human resource department employees at the stores.
The new hiring policy is to ensure "we are staffed appropriately," when the stores are busiest and is not a cost-cutting move, said company spokesman David Tovar. Temporary workers, he said, are paid the same starting pay as other workers.
Using temporary workers enables the company to have adequate staff on busy weeknights and weekends without having to hire additional full-time staff.
Tovar said fewer than 10 percent of its U.S. workforce is temporary - or what the company internally calls "flexible associates" - compared to 1 to 2 percent before 2013. The majority of its workforce is still regular full-time staff, he said.
From one or two percent to ten percent is a huge jump. Makes sense though -- costs are going up and the economy is still in the tank.
Posted by DaveH at June 13, 2013 7:14 PM