shares of walmart inc wmt rose 15 in morning trading wednesday after the discount retail behemoth said it plans to hire 40000 employees for the holiday season the new hires will include seasonal store employees fulltime permanent truck drivers and customercare employees the company said the average us wage is more than 17 an hour walmart has raised employee pay the past several months in many areas from pharmacy technicians to truck drivers a year ago the company had said it planned to hire 20000 supply chain employees to work at distribution centers fulfillment centers and transportation offices with an average pay of 2037 per hours at a time that many companies struggled with supply chain bottlenecks walmarts stock has slipped 63 year to date while the spdr consumer staples select sector etf xlp has shed 72 and the dow jones industrial average djia has lost 150