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CNN Live At Daybreak
AARP to Recruit Older Workers for Home Depot
Aired February 06, 2004 - 06:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time for a little "Business Buzz" right now. Forget about those young college grads, older workers are in hot demand, at least at one home improvement store.
Carrie Lee has the scoop live from the Nasdaq market site.
Good morning -- Carrie.
CARRIE LEE, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
AARP and Home Depot are forming a partnership. "The Wall Street Journal" today reporting that AARP plans to recruit and train workers age 55 and over to work at Home Depot's 1,700 stores.
Now this isn't the first time a company has recruited older workers. Wal-Mart, for example, hires retirees as greeters, baggers and cashiers. But this is really one of the broadest efforts so far to hire older workers.
The company, Home Depot, has about 300,000 employees right now. They plan to add 35,000 employees this year. And then they are going to need an additional 100,000 or so to make up for promotions, people who have been promoted, as well as attrition. And Home Depot is looking for all types of people with experience here in things like plumbing, landscaping, customer service, design. Wages will range from $7 to $20 an hour. They are looking for part time workers, full time workers.
This is really all part of a growing trend, Carol. The labor force participation rate for people 50 and older actually climbed seven percentage points in the past decade hitting 46 percent last year. So Home Depot really jumping on this bandwagon.
COSTELLO: Wow, it's just kind of sad you can't retire at a certain age and that so many older people are going back to work.
LEE: Well, I'd like to think some of these people enjoy working and some of them probably want to have something to do. Part time landscaping, probably pleasant for some people.
COSTELLO: Maybe so.
Quick look at the futures before you go.
LEE: Yes, things look very strong this morning. We did see a little market action to the upside yesterday. Of course the big jobs report is going to be the key story on Wall Street today, coming at 8:30 Eastern. The unemployment rate for January expected to hold steady at 5.7 percent, our economy expecting to have added 165,000 jobs. But, Carol, remember December was much weaker than expected, including -- or regarding those payroll additions. So this is going to be the big thing to drive the markets today.
COSTELLO: All right. Carrie Lee, we'll get you in the next half hour. Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 6, 2004 - 06:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Time for a little "Business Buzz" right now. Forget about those young college grads, older workers are in hot demand, at least at one home improvement store.
Carrie Lee has the scoop live from the Nasdaq market site.
Good morning -- Carrie.
CARRIE LEE, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
AARP and Home Depot are forming a partnership. "The Wall Street Journal" today reporting that AARP plans to recruit and train workers age 55 and over to work at Home Depot's 1,700 stores.
Now this isn't the first time a company has recruited older workers. Wal-Mart, for example, hires retirees as greeters, baggers and cashiers. But this is really one of the broadest efforts so far to hire older workers.
The company, Home Depot, has about 300,000 employees right now. They plan to add 35,000 employees this year. And then they are going to need an additional 100,000 or so to make up for promotions, people who have been promoted, as well as attrition. And Home Depot is looking for all types of people with experience here in things like plumbing, landscaping, customer service, design. Wages will range from $7 to $20 an hour. They are looking for part time workers, full time workers.
This is really all part of a growing trend, Carol. The labor force participation rate for people 50 and older actually climbed seven percentage points in the past decade hitting 46 percent last year. So Home Depot really jumping on this bandwagon.
COSTELLO: Wow, it's just kind of sad you can't retire at a certain age and that so many older people are going back to work.
LEE: Well, I'd like to think some of these people enjoy working and some of them probably want to have something to do. Part time landscaping, probably pleasant for some people.
COSTELLO: Maybe so.
Quick look at the futures before you go.
LEE: Yes, things look very strong this morning. We did see a little market action to the upside yesterday. Of course the big jobs report is going to be the key story on Wall Street today, coming at 8:30 Eastern. The unemployment rate for January expected to hold steady at 5.7 percent, our economy expecting to have added 165,000 jobs. But, Carol, remember December was much weaker than expected, including -- or regarding those payroll additions. So this is going to be the big thing to drive the markets today.
COSTELLO: All right. Carrie Lee, we'll get you in the next half hour. Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
