Walmart hiring 2,355 for holiday season in Illinois

From Illinois Business Journal news services

Walmart says it plans to hire an estimated 60,000 seasonal associates across the country, including 2,355 in Illinois, to help give customers a “memorable, affordable and convenient” holiday season.

The company said that, as in past years, it will offer current hourly associates the first opportunity to pick up additional hours.

Seasonal associates are being hired for jobs across the store, with many of them working the traditional customer-facing positions, including cashier, sales associate and stocker. Some people are looking for a short-term opportunity to earn extra Christmas money while others are looking to start a career. In fact, Walmart has hundreds of store managers who started with the company as a seasonal associate. Last year, more than half of Walmart’s seasonal associates stayed with the company in a permanent role after the holidays.

“I applied at Walmart around the holidays because I was going to college and needed a job to earn extra money,” said Chicago store manager Jonathon Walters.” I did not anticipate staying or building a career with Walmart, but once I started, I realized how much I was learning and all of the great opportunities available here that helped me grow from a seasonal associate to a store manager.”

Walmart said it will continue its ”Checkout Promise” by having more registers open during peak shopping times, helping customers save time by getting through lines quicker. New this year, the company is adding department managers in more than 3,500 stores for the holidays to specifically serve customers who are coming into the store to pick up their online orders.