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Walmart targets college grads for manager jobs, Goldman Sachs offers unlimited vacation days

Yahoo Finance Live looks at Walmart's latest recruiting strategy, promising a career ladder that could lead to salaries of up to $200,000,s a Goldman Sachs offers senior-level employees unlimited vacation days.

Video transcript

- All right, just how big is our country's labor shortage? By one metric, it's 11.5 million big. That's how many open jobs we currently have. But by another metric Walmart can't find anybody who wants to make $200,000 a year to manage their stores. That's big.

That's not the starting salary, but that's what they can typically make after working their way up from a starting salary around 65K. And they're going on the offensive. They are recruiting college grads.

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Seana, I was astounded to see the headline that Walmart can't find people who want to make $210,000 a year. I figured you were capped at about 85 grand, which is still a solid living in this country.

- Yeah, certainly, and it's a very interesting program here that they're putting forward. So it's called College to Career. And they're targeting those people, those kids who are coming right out of college, who have a lot of potential and determination to work.

And they're saying, hey, come work with us. You're right. You're not gonna be getting paid 200,000 right off the start. But in two years-- that's the goal for Walmart. Within two years, they want you to be making just around $210,000.

Now, there is a significant demand here for this position because they need managers for its more than 4,700 US stores. And, Dave, you mentioned that statistic, 11.5, 11 and 1/2 million job openings in the country. These retailers need to get very competitive.

And, Rachelle, Walmart has done it before. They're doing it for truckers. They're offering truckers over $100,000 a year to come drive for them. Now they're doing it for their store managers, and they're saying, hey, you can make 200,000 within the first two years. It's a pretty good deal.

- I mean, you would think so. You would think people would be clamoring for this. But, you know, we are in the middle of the Great Resignation, or as one of our guests quoted, the great realization, where people aren't just looking at the paycheck. They're looking at the quality of life-- the sort of hours they might be working, sort of how much interaction with the public they might have to have.

And, you know, some people are clearly just looking at this and saying, no, you know, I'll keep looking. It's a tight labor market. There's a lot of open jobs.

I think if it was me, and I was coming out of college, and that was an opportunity, even if I was still sort of figuring out what I wanted to do long-term, two years to track to 210,000, my parents would slap me if I didn't take it, honestly. They'd be like, what's wrong with you? So--

- Listen, I don't know what the two of you made. I made 15 grand a year out of college. If you'd have told me in two years I could be making 210, where do I sign would have been my answer.

- But if you're willing to make 15 grand out of college, you're probably doing something that you love with the hope that it will pay off rather than going for that big paycheck, maybe, off the top.

- Difficult. I mean, I'm happy--

- I agree.

- I'm happy I'm here. And, anyway, another interesting economic indicator is what's happening at Goldman Sachs, where they are offering senior-level employees unlimited vacation. Now, this doesn't apply to everyone at Goldman Sachs. But all Goldman employees are guaranteed three weeks of vacation, which is far more than, I think, the average American.

But the real hook here is that unlimited vacation for those top senior-level executives. Now, I wonder how many of them actually take any more than two weeks. I know several people that work on Wall Street that are offered unlimited vacation, and they still don't take anywhere near even three weeks a year.

- Yeah, and that certainly is the case. I've read that statistic many times over that, these companies that offer unlimited. It's been proven that their employees then don't typically take that max, obviously, unlimited, but more than two or three weeks at a time that they would likely be given if they weren't offered this unlimited option.

But it really points to the fact that it's a very, very tight labor market, Rachelle. Companies have to do anything they can to entice those talented workers to join their workforce. So Goldman Sachs, one of the big banks, coming out and saying, hey, work for us, and we won't cap your vacation, but we'll see whether or not you're actually going to take it.

- I think what's sad is even for your regular 9:00 to 5:00ers, the majority of people don't end up even actually taking all of their PTO. So even if it is on the table, you would hope that people would take it so that they wouldn't get burnt out. But then you sort of worry if someone's gonna look at you funny if you take too much time off, whereas if you're the big boss, you don't have to worry about that.

- All those junior-level bankers at Goldman are saying, give me unlimited. They're working 100-hour weeks in most cases. They'll take it.