
A shopper holding an umbrella walks toward a Kroger Co. grocery store in Louisville, Kentucky, United States on Sunday, April 26, 2020.
Stacie Scott | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Kroger announced on Monday that it would hold a hiring event on Thursday to fill 10,000 jobs at its companies.
The event offers virtual and in-store interviews for potential employees in retail, e-commerce, pharmacy, manufacturing and logistics. In addition to the Kroger stores of the same name, the company operates brands such as Fred Meyer, Harris Teeter and Ralphs.
The company has an average national wage in excess of $ 15.50 an hour. In March, Kroger announced it was investing $ 350 million to raise the average employee wage to $ 16 an hour. In a press release, Kroger added that its perks include a tuition reimbursement program, psychological counseling, and discounts on groceries, electronics, and streaming services.
Retailers have raised wages in an increasingly competitive labor market.
Kroger has been hiring since the beginning of the year, but this is its first nationwide hybrid hiring event. The company added 100,000 employees during the Covid pandemic, but a Kroger spokesman said many of those employees have since returned to their pre-pandemic employers.
The grocer had 468,000 employees as of the end of 2020, a number comparable to that before the pandemic, according to the company.
Kroger stock is up nearly 23% since January.