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- Retailers are hiring fewer seasonal workers this year, but more people want the jobs.The mismatch has an economist drawing comparisons to the Great Recession.Here are the different hiring approaches major retailers are taking for the holidays.
America's annual holiday shopping rush is usually preceded by a hiring sprint as retailers beef up their front-line workforces to meet the masses.
But this year, there aren't as many jobs available at major retailers as there have been in years past. Retail hiring rates are at their lowest since 2009, according to analysis by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
"The cautious pace of announcements so far suggests that companies are not betting on a big seasonal surge," the firm's senior vice president, Andy Challenger, said in its report.
Data from the jobs site Indeed also shows that retail listings at the beginning of October were lower than the same point in each of the prior four years.
"Things have really slowed down in the seasonal hiring space in the last couple of years," Indeed economist Cory Stahl told Business Insider. "Even of the postings that remain, we're seeing that they're not pushing as hard to get people into these jobs as quickly."
While employers are slowing down, Stahl has found that more people are looking for jobs — a lot more.
Searches on Indeed for seasonal jobs are already well outpacing last year's rate, which was notably higher than prior years, according to Stahl's analysis.
With the broader US labor market in a quasi-frozen state, seasonal jobs look increasingly like a lifeline for workers who are trying to earn some income and get moving with their careers. Retail jobs typically represent about two-thirds of seasonal hiring each year, Indeed found.
"Employers are just not hiring," Stahl said. "The best comparison we have is the years immediately following the Great Recession in terms of hiring — and that's not a comparison you really want to draw."
To be sure, some major retailers are still adding seasonal staff.
Bath & Body Works plans to hire 32,000 people; Dick's Sporting Goods is adding 14,000; Kohl's has a few thousand seasonal listings on its careers page.
And there's Amazon, which said it is picking up some 250,000 full-time, part-time, and seasonal positions across its US transportation and fulfillment network.
But others are notably absent from what might otherwise be the tidy list of big, round-numbered hiring targets of yore.
Target said it plans to primarily rely on a combination of additional hours for existing staff, a "flexible workforce" of some 43,000 people who are available to pick up additional shifts, and an unspecified number of seasonal members across its fleet of stores.
A Walmart spokesperson similarly told Business Insider that instead of a massive hiring push, the retail giant intends to offer most of its additional hours to existing staff, like it did last year.
"There may be some hiring on a store-by-store basis, but the majority will be giving those hours to current associates," the spokesperson said.
Macy's and UPS, which have previously staffed up big during the holidays, did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
"There's been a real shift more broadly in the labor market towards saying, 'Hey, we're not going to bring new people in. We're going to make do with the people we have,'" Indeed's Stahl said. "It's not surprising to then potentially see that carrying through into some of these seasonal hiring decisions as well."
That may be of some comfort to those who have jobs already, but those who were hoping for a holiday hustle might be disappointed with the limited options.
