Seasonal Hiring at Retail

Seasonal hiring at U.S. retail was back to normal in the Christmas shopping season, with stores hiring about as many seasonal (temporary) workers as they did pre-recession. This does not mean, however, that retail is back to where it was — far from it. Retailers are keeping fewer permanent workers, knowing that they can hire additional workers virtually at will. This is a pattern that will continue as long as so many skilled workers are unemployed. Retailers won’t have a reason to build their permanent staffing levels back up until after they come to a Christmas season in which they can’t quite hire the people they need. The way things are going, that may not happen until 2018.