Walmart Struggles With Store Manager Crisis Despite Attractive Pay; Wants To Attract Job Seekers

Walmart Inc WMT is struggling to find a new generation to replace multiple key managers leading its 4,700 U.S. stores for at least a decade, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Walmart wants to optimally use the 1.6 million U.S. employees it already has and broaden its appeal to prospective job seekers. 

The tight labor market and competition further added to its headwind, even for a job that often pays over $200,000 annually, WSJ noted.

It is a crucial position for the retail giant, requiring long hours and in big stores overseeing an operation with roughly $100 million in annual sales and a team of 300.

The concerns led Walmart to create a program to recruit and train college graduates to become store managers, promising a starting wage of at least $65,000 a year and an accelerated two-year track into the top store job. 

The program, known as College2Career, aimed to bring nearly 1,000 applicants through this summer. For now, two college graduates with existing Walmart connections are testing a program that looks to attract hundreds of job seekers.

Both program participants said the training felt like a promising retail-industry opportunity, including the guaranteed starting wage, WSJ writes.

Walmart urged its regional executives to build recruiting relationships with colleges in their local markets to find future trainees.

Peer Amazon.com Inc AMZN has also boosted wages and added benefits throughout the pandemic and rapidly accelerated its pace of hiring, adding hundreds of thousands of workers to its ranks.

Price Action: WMT shares closed higher by 0.39% at $148.06 on Friday.