Wal-Mart has told CBS Marketwatch that it plans to add 160,000 “new” jobs in 2004, of which 3 out of 4 (123,000) will be “full-time”, which in Walspeak means 28 hours per week. Estimating that for every 1job created at Wal-Mart, 1.5 jobs are lost elsewhere in the retail sector, we can expect other retailers to lose 240,000 jobs, yielding a net of -80,000 jobs in the retail sector due to Wal-Mart “growth”. To give you a sense of where our American economy is at in 2004, Wal-Mart will add 267 times more jobs than General Motors, which plans to add only 600 new jobs in 2004, a drop of 14% below the GM job additions in 2003. Wal-Mart also said it plans to add 50,000,000 “new” square feet of stores, which is only 3,700,000 s.f., or 8% more than they added in 2003. The 2004 level would be equal to 270 stores averaging 185,000 s.f. per unit. Subtract from that the 324 “dark stores” that Wal-Mart currently it trying to rent or sell, and you have more “dead” Wal-Marts sitting empty than they plan to open in 2004.
CBS Marketwatch presents these “new” job statistics without any disclaimer that some “old” jobs may be lost, leaving the net job growth in the minus column. In this regard, the business media misleads the public into thinking that companies like Wal-Mart are major engines of job growth to the economy, when in fact they are creating significant economic dislocation. Why do we need CBS Marketwatch to pass along press release figures from Wal-Mart? This kind of unanalytical business reporting is more bulletin board than investigative. The CBS article was called “Revving up for a hiring boom.” Old jobs in new aprons is hardly a hiring boom.
