Walmart Canada plans to open more than 40 hiring centres across the country as it adds a total of approximately 4,000 new employees over the next year and a half – about 500 more than previously announced.

The world’s biggest retailer expects to spend $750 million to open, relocate or remodel stores by the end of 2013.

Included in that list are the majority of the 39 former Zellers stores which Walmart bought in 2011, which will reopen under the Walmart name by the end of this fiscal year.

In addition to in-store permanent jobs, the various projects are expected to generate more than 10,500 construction positions.

Walmart is already one of Canada’s largest employers, with more than 90,000 people on their payroll.