As announced in January, retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) has planned to hire more than 100,000 veterans over the next five years. In order to implement its plan, Walmart has launched the ‘Veterans Welcome Home Commitment’, wherein Walmart will provide jobs to veterans who had been honorably discharged from service in the first 12 months off active duty. These veterans had served in Afghanistan and Iraq and have had a difficult time finding work after returning from duty.
Being the largest private employer in the U.S., Walmart, through this initiative, will offer jobs mostly in its stores, either in Sam's Club locations, in its Arkansas-based headquarters, or in the company's distribution centers.
Apart from hiring veterans, Walmart has committed $20 million through 2015 to provide job training, education and transition support to veterans and their families from the military to the civilian workforce.
This commitment to help veterans shows Walmart’s dedication and leadership position to find innovative solutions to fix unemployment issues. Besides hiring veterans, Walmart also took an initiative in late-Jan 2013 to contribute to the revitalization of the sluggish U.S. economy and intends to spend $50 billion in the next 10 years to buy more American merchandise. Through this initiative, the company expects to focus on boosting the sports goods, fashion basics, storage products, games and paper products categories. Walmart’s contribution toward sourcing U.S. items is likely to benefit the economy in the coming years.
Walmart currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). However, other stocks in the retail supermarket industry, which are attractive for investment include The Kroger Co. (KR), Etablissements Delhaize Fr (DEG) and Harris Teeter Supermarkets, Inc. (HTSI) all of them carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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