Wal-Mart expansion creates jobs

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Wal-Mart has said it expects to hire about 22,000 people as it opens or expands 150 US stores.

Many of the roles will be part-time cashiers - but the firm said it also would employ store managers, pharmacists and personnel workers.

The announcement has been seen as a sign that the firm was continuing to trade well as US consumers looked for value-for-money products.

Several major US retailers release May sales figures later.

Meals in

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, saw flat profits and slightly lower sales for the first three months of this year compared with a year ago.

But like supermarkets in the UK, is has benefited from the growing number of consumers cutting back on going out for meals as a means to save money.

Official figures showed that retail sales in the US fell by 0.4% in April, much more than had been expected.

On Friday, US jobs figures are expected to show another 500,000 jobs were lost during May.