Seasonal hiring in the retail industry is about to fall to its lowest level since the 2009 recession, an early alert sign that the holiday shopping season could be softer than expected, said Challenger Placement Company, Gray & Christmas in a Wednesday report.
Challenger plans that retailers could add less than 500,000 jobs in the last three months of 2025, marking the smallest seasonal gain in 16 years and a drop of 8% compared to the period of the previous year.
“Seasonal employers are faced with a confluence of factors this year: prices are looming, inflationary pressures persist, and many companies continue to rely on automation and permanent staff instead of large waves of seasonal recruits,” said Andy Challenger, senior vice-president and work expert at Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
“Although we can see a late hiring push if vacation sales are upwards, the prudent pace of ads so far suggests that companies are not betting on a big seasonal push. This year could be more to do more with less.”
Challenger projections are burnt down because fewer companies make seasonal hiring announcements.
This time last year, retailers love Target,, Macy,, Burlington storesAldi and 1 to 800 flowers had already announced the number of seasonal workers they planned to hire. But so far this season, none of these companies has disclosed the number of seasonal workers they still plan to hire.
Last year, Target said that he would hire 100,000 seasonal workers. This year, he said that he offered overtime to his current employees and explaining his “team on demand” – a group of around 43,000 store employees who take quarters according to their schedules.
While Target said that he also hires seasonal team members in his stores and supply chain facilities, he did not say how much he planned to hire.
Meanwhile, Macy’s, Burlington Stores, Aldi and 1-800-Flowers did not publish any information on their vacation job plans.
While some companies like Amazon And Tall Release job figures a little later in the season, Spirit Halloween and Bath & Body Works are among the few to have published their seasonal job plans so far.
Spirit said he was planning to hire 50,000 people, the same number as last year, according to Challenger. Bath & Body Works plans to hire 32,000 workers, slightly down 32,700 last year, said Challenger.
The deaf response of the retail industry so far has so far reflected the global labor market, which has slowed down in recent months, contributing to the decision of the Federal Reserve to reduce its key interest rate last week.
In August, the non -agricultural payroll increased by only 22,000, well below 75,000 expected by economists interviewed by Dow Jones, and a slowdown marked compared to July.
During the months preceding the crucial shopping season, many consumer companies that count on seasonal workers disclose the number of employees they plan to hire, which is an indicator of the strength of the season. The Challenger report is one of the many indicators of economic weakness that consumers have timed in recent months, because the trade war of President Donald Trump could harm the economy.
Consumers have been under pressure for several years due to persistent inflation and stubbornly high interest rates, but now they also face even higher prices on certain goods from prices and record a high credit card debt. Many companies compensate for the costs of higher prices by increasing prices, which could have a frightening effect on consumer demand in the coming months.
In early September, the PWC consulting firm published a report which found that buyers plan to spend 5% less on vacation, travel and entertainment gifts this year – the first notable decline since 2020. Alixpartners, another consulting company, said that it provided for a “disappointing” of 3% to 5% growth in vacation sales rates this year.