Walmart to hire 20,000 permanent workers for supply chain operations

Walmart will hire 20,000 new workers across its supply chain operations, assigning them to jobs in more than 250 Walmart and Sam’s Club distribution centers (DCs), fulfillment centers (FCs), and transportation offices, the company said Wednesday.

Logistics sector businesses such as retailers and parcel carriers annually hire tens of thousands of people for temporary jobs to handle the winter holiday peak season, but Walmart said its jobs are permanent positions divided between full-and part-time capacities for tasks including order fillers, freight handlers, lift drivers, technicians, and management positions.

The move comes after the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company in July announced plans to meet rising customer demand by installing automated material handling systems from robot vendor Symbotic in 25 of its 42 regional DCs. And in January, the retail giant launched a plan to boost the number of its brick and mortar stores that double as fulfillment centers offering same-day pickup and delivery services, using products from the logistics tech vendors Dematic, Fabric, and Alert Innovation.

According to Joe Metzger, Walmart U.S.’s executive vice president of supply chain operations, the investments are a response to the strength of the company’s most recent quarterly earnings report, when Walmart on August 17 reported quarterly earnings of $141.0 billion, up 2.4% over the previous year.