The holiday season is approaching and retailers have already started offering attractive deals. However, another sector that is likely to get a boost during this period is the job seekers. Like previous years, 2019 too is likely to see a surge in hiring ahead of the holiday season.
All major retailers in the United States have already gone on a hiring spree, with Williams Sonoma being the latest to jump the bandwagon. The retail major said that it will be hiring thousands of seasonal work-from-home employees ahead of the all-important holiday season. Holiday season essentially sees a surge in employment, with all major retailers hiring seasonal workers to tackle in-store traffic pressure and manage delivery of goods.
This definitely is a good sign given that US Payrolls added 128,000 jobs in October, rising 3.6% from 3.5% in September. Analysts had expected a decline in job growth in October owing to the now-resolved workers strike in General Motors. Moreover, US unemployment touched a 50-year low in September, which has made many retailers struggle to hire workers. Given this, major retail giants are also offering perks to attract seasonal workers.
Holiday seasons are typically the time, when seasonal employment gets a boost. Given the upcoming pressure Best Buy started its holiday season hiring last month with a job fair. The company announced that it will be hiring around 90,000 workers ahead of the holiday season. Macy's too plans to hire around 80,000 temporary workers and its hiring procedure is already on.
This seems to be a repeat of last year's scene wherein retailers struggled to rope in temporary workers and had to lure them with attractive bonuses and gift cards. This year the scene won't be any different given that the National Retail Federation has forecast holiday sales to reach a record high of $730 billion, an increase of 4% over 2018. Moreover, the National Retail Federation has also predicted that retailers will hire between 530,000 and 590,000 employees this year compared with 554,000 workers in 2018.
Target Corporation too is on a hiring spree and plans to hire around 130,000 employees ahead of the holiday season, compared with 120,000 employees in 2018. Dick's Sporting Goods, which hired 5,000 seasonal workers, last year, targets to fill 8,000 jobs this year.
E-commerce giant Amazon too has started hiring early this year given that there are six less days in this year's holiday season. Amazon plans to fill in 30,000 job vacancies ahead of Thanksgiving Day. Other major retailers like Walmart and Kroger too are pulling their socks and are busy filling up vacancies both for their stores as well as their warehouses.
