300 new jobs expected from new Smokey Point Wal-Mart

SMOKEY POINT — About 300 new jobs will come to Arlington this fall when the new Wal-Mart opens at Smokey Point.

That’s good news for Snohomish County, where the unemployment level has hovered above 9 percent for months. The national retailer will open a hiring center in the next month to start the process of finding 300 workers for both full- and part-time positions, said Jennifer Spall, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman. The majority of the jobs, Spall said, will be for full-time work. The jobs available include supervisory positions.

“We are excited to add this Wal-Mart to Arlington and bring good jobs with career opportunities to the area,” she said.

The opening date for the hiring center hasn’t been set yet, said Spall, who also declined to give a grand opening date for the Wal-Mart store.

Although Wal-Mart officials obtained building permits for the site years ago, they didn’t immediately start construction on the store at 172nd Street NE and 43rd Avenue NE. A community group opposing the Wal-Mart lost its court battle to block the new store.

Today, construction on the 152,492-square-foot store is well under way.

“We are incorporating advanced sustainable environmental features not commonly found in retail buildings, including high-efficiency LED lighting, skylights and automatic light-dimming systems,” Spall said.

As of July, Wal-Mart employed 17,494 workers in Washington state at its 52 stores and one distribution center. The average wage for regular, full-time hourly Wal-Mart workers in Washington is $12.47 per hour.

The retailer says it works with 745 suppliers in Washington state and spent more than $1.8 billion for merchandise and services in the last fiscal year with those companies.