Walmart launched on Sunday a new program that will help students and recent graduates land a job as quickly as possible. The company called it College2Career, a program with the goal making a candidate eligible to hold high positions in one of its stores in two years.
College2Career offers an immersive management training program to build skills and experience for high-profile careers in retail. Participants attend class, get mentored by managers, get work tips along the way, and practice like working inside a Walmart store. After the program, candidates could be accepted in positions that boast salaries ranging from $65,000 to $200,000.
Walmart is looking to hire “top performers” in its program to develop future store managers. They say that this new opportunity will help them develop high potential talent into qualified candidates who can eventually manage one of Walmart’s shelves.
The management is planning to hire over a thousand candidates. College2Career is open to all current Walmart workers.
College2Career is a good initiative by Walmart to hire more employees. It has been one of the mechanisms used for gaining labor, as there’s intense competition among businesses in vying for skilled workers across all industries. As a company giant with over 1.5 million workers nationwide, Walmart looks for quality over quantity.
Walmart is upping the ante in its competition with other retailers by increasing pay and benefits for its workers. Last month, the company offered to shoulder up to 100% of some workers’ college tuition and increased the salary of their long-haul truck drivers.
Labor market in the post-pandemic era
The US estimates a total of 22 million jobs lost due to the pandemic. In addition, when lockdown protocols were put into place more than two years ago, many stores closed, and employees were laid off from their positions.
As the US government gradually lifted the restrictions, more jobs opened up for Americans. Last April, companies reported to have employed over 400 thousand workers; this is almost identical to the data from March according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The data saw a uniform trend within 16 months where jobs opened for many and a uniform trend within 12 months where companies hired over 400,000 employees.
The unemployment rate has barely changed since the pandemic, with 3.6% as compared to a pre-pandemic figure of 3.5%. However, experts predict that more jobs will open up in the coming months, and this trend should continue until things return ‘to normal again.’
According to one of Glassdoor’s senior economists, Daniel Zhao, the United States is “in for a slower 2022.” In April, he said that the trend in the data shows a prediction that the activities will slow down this year.
Walmart in the post-pandemic period
In a world where supply chain management is becoming increasingly competitive, Walmart is trying to find success by focusing on quality instead of just quantity. The company’s recent College2Career program allows skilled candidates to take advantage and gain entry-level positions within two years.
These candidates have undergone training and are highly equipped to work to reach the company’s goals.
Information about the program is available on the company’s site.
