Seasonal Hiring In U.S. Expected To Increase This Year

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/14226

Submitted by Doug Cunningham on September 29, 2010 - 3:36pm
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Seasonal retail hiring is expected to be up this year. Jesse Russell reports.

It isn’t steady work, but it could give some of the chronic unemployed in the country brief relief. Human resources consulting firm Challenger Gray and Christmas released a report this week that suggests two months of consecutive retail sales gains could signal to retailers they may need to increase their seasonal hiring. 2008 saw a 22-year low in hiring with employers only adding 384,000 seasonal jobs. 2009 was slightly better with slightly more than 500,000. The firm also said retail layoff announcements have plummeted by 65 percent in comparison to the same time last year. Some announcements this week seem to verify the firm’s predictions. Toys R Us, JC Penny, Best Buy, and Macy’s have all said they will hire a combined 169,000 seasonal workers.

[Crazy Dave]

1. That's good news

I don't have any articles as a reference, I just remember hearing last year that back in 2008 and 2009, UPS hiring of temps for the holidays was down 95% (nationwide) for the first time in the history of the company.