Shops to Hire More Holiday Workers

Shops to hire more holiday workers

Autumn is set to begin and several retail stores are already filling temporary jobs in preparation for busy shopping during the upcoming holiday season.

Shops are expected to hire nearly 600,000 additional workers during the last three months of the year, according to new data from Challenger, Gray and Christmas Inc., a Chicago-based employment tracking company.

Retail stores added approximately 500,000 temporary employees last year, up almost a third from the dismal employment season in the autumn of 2008, but still weak compared with the days prior to the economic recession.

In 2006, shops hired an estimated 750,000 workers for the holidays.

“It seems we’re in a better place now than we were a year ago at this time,” CEO John Challenger said. “But retailers are still very cautious. The recession is not too far behind them.”

But some shop managers are cautiously optimistic because retail sales increased 0.3 percent in July and 0.4 percent in August, indicating that sales will continue to rise into the fall. The latest information shows a climb in sales for clothes, and retailers hope that hand held devices such as smart phones and e-book readers may experience brisk sales during the coming months.

Last week, toy retail giant Toys “R” Us demonstrated its optimism for the holiday season ahead by saying that it will open some 600 temporary outlets across the country. The company said it would start getting about 10,000 workers in anticipation of growing demand for the holidays.

Posted by Melanie Mendoza on Monday September 20 2010, 9:05 AM EST. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Shopping. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0