The Outlook for Holiday Jobs is Getting Bleak

Many retailers are planning to hire fewer holiday workers this year.

Now that the summer is over, many people who are looking for jobs are considering applying for a temporary job during the upcoming holiday season. From the end of September until the new year, most companies start increasing their workforce in order to meet the increased shopping and product demand during the holiday season. But this year, it looks like there are going to be even less of those jobs to go around.

Toys R Us is just one of the many retailers who have announced that this year, they plan to cut their holiday hiring by 11 percent. As the world's largest toy store, Toys R Us has always been well known for expanding their rosters and hiring tons of people to at their stores and in their distribution centers.

Their announcement didn't come as a surprise to industry experts. Still, in spite of the lower number, the toy store plans to hire more than 40,000 seasonal employees this year. Last year, they doubled their staff and hired over 45,000 holiday workers. However, this year it seems that many employers are scaling back because they aren't expecting to see a huge increase in sales, even during the holidays.

So many people are out of work, working less hours or are just struggling to make ends meet, this means that spending money on non-essential items isn't as tempting as it has been in years past. I know that for me, this holiday season, like last year, will be be smaller with a focus on spending time with my family rather than spending a lot of money.

Even with the reduction in the number of holiday jobs, there are still many companies who say that they are planning on hiring the same number of seasonal workers as last year. For example., J.C Penney, Kohl's, Gamestop and even Crate & Barrel have said that they will start hiring soon and plan on hiring a large number of workers for the season.

So, if you are out of work, it might be time to brush up your resume and find a temporary job during the holiday season. Most companies will start hiring within the next week and will continue to add employees through November. Surprisingly, many companies use this time to "try out" employees, and sometimes hire seasonal workers on to their permanent work force.

Have you considered taking seasonal work? Let me know in the comments.

 

 

By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for SalesHeadsBlog and Nexxt. Along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.