The Wall Street Journal:
Call it lipstick on a pig, but there’s at least one bright spot in the nation’s bleak employment data. While it may take years to replace the millions of jobs lost in the recession, one employer is already on a hiring spree: Mary Kay Cosmetics.
The direct-sales giant last week reported signing up more than 165,000 new U.S. sales reps in April, the largest monthly amount in a decade, the company says. Since these new hires are technically independent sellers – rather than full-time staffers – the gains can also be seen as a rare example of small-business growth.
The upturn is in stark contrast to a report released Monday by the United States Conference of Mayors showing a loss of 7.3 million jobs in the nation’s 363 metropolitan areas since the recession, declines that aren’t expected to be recouped until 2014, at the earliest.
Mary Kay – famous for awarding top sellers with a pink Cadillac – employs more than 2 million “independent beauty consultants†as the Texas-based company calls its sales reps: “Members of the Mary Kay independent sales force are in business for themselves, set their own schedules, build their own customer base and determine their own level of success,†the company says.
Logo from Mary Kay