Piling Up
Some companies are struggling to make do with fewer workers. At Wal-Mart Stores Inc., merchandise is piling up in aisles and in the back of stores because the company doesn’t have enough employees to keep shelves stocked, according to interviews with workers.
In the past five years, the world’s largest retailer added 455 U.S. Wal-Mart stores, a 13 percent increase, according to filings and the company’s website. In the same period, its total U.S. workforce, which includes Sam’s Club employees, dropped by about 20,000, or 1.4 percent. Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, employs about 1.4 million U.S. workers.
Retail payrolls slumped by the most since February 2012 and factory employment declined for the first time since September, today’s report showed.
“The big weakness in March was retail, and this was the coldest month of March we’ve had in over a decade,” said Russell Price, a senior economist at Ameriprise Financial Inc. in Detroit. Price is the top payrolls forecaster of the past two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Corporate Recruiter
Howie Appel knows doubly how tough it is to find work. The 65-year-old lost his position as a corporate recruiter at HNTB Corp. in Lake Mary, Florida, in 2009. He has worked several part-time jobs since then, he said.
One of his roles is helping others find jobs as executive director of ProNet Career Resources, an unemployment and under- employment support group he founded in 2003. Many of its members are baby boomers struggling to find opportunities as they compete with recent college graduates.
“It’s a very, very slow comeback,” he said. “We’re hearing all over the place that there are openings. We’re hearing it, but not seeing it.”
The unemployment rate, derived from a survey of households, was forecast to hold at 7.7 percent, according to the Bloomberg survey median. The figure, the lowest since December 2008, reflected a 496,000 decline in the size of the labor force.