Dive Brief:

• Dollar General will add some 10,000 new jobs this year as it expands its physical footprint with 1,000 new stores and two new distribution centers.

• The employment boost will be the largest in the discount retailer's 78-year history and reflects a 9% workforce increase, according to a press release.

• Dollar General said that employees will go through a robust training program that includes insight on moving up through the company ranks. All job applications will be completed online.

Dive Insight:

Dollar General’s hiring news isn’t much of a surprise, considering the company’s recent announcement of a massive store rollout — a sign that the retailer believes its core customer shops mostly offline. CEO Todd Vasos said in a statement that when he arrived at the company in 2008, it employed some 72,000 employees; that number is projected to reach more than 130,000 by the end of 2017.

These days many retailers are similarly crowing about their human resources plans when it involves hiring. Framing expansion in terms of job growth is becoming de rigueur these days: President Donald Trump has taken to bragging about job numbers regardless of how much influence he may have had on a company’s employment plans.

Amazon earlier this year said it would add some 100,000 full-time, full-benefit jobs in Texas, California, Florida, New Jersey and “many other states across the country over the next 18 months." Wal-Mart also recently touted its hiring plans, saying that it will add some 10,000 retail jobs created through the opening of 59 new, expanded and relocated Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club facilities as well as e-commerce services.

Wal-Mart’s hiring announcement came on the heels of a series of announcement of job cuts in recent months, however, and indeed, most retailers are eliminating positions amid store closures by Macy’s and by bankrupt retailers like The Limited, American Apparel and Wet Seal that have shuttered all operations. U.S. corporations cut 45,934 jobs in January and retailers accounted for nearly half of them, according to the latest report on monthly job cuts released by global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas.