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U.S. retailers plan to hire the smallest number of seasonal workers since 2008 because of higher labor costs and uncertainty over consumers’ holiday spending, according to a report by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas (CGC) obtained by Reuters.
Retailers will take on about 410,000 workers for this winter’s holiday season, according to CGC’s analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That figure is only slightly higher than the 324,900 added during the last quarter of 2008 when the Great Recession was at its depths. A year ago, retailers added 519,400 temps, 26 percent fewer than during the same time in 2021.
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Holiday sales will be their smallest since 2018, according to Deloitte, as consumers have spent most of their COVID-era savings and worry about their economic future.
So far this year, companies have announced firm plans for only 8,000 seasonal hires, CGC said. At this point last year, retailers had confirmed plans to add 258,201 workers for the season.
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“We’ve never gone this far into September and not had big hiring predictions from retailers,” CGC senior vice-president Andrew Challenger told Reuters. “It’s really surprising.”
TRENDPOST: Traditionally, many retailers count on holiday season sales to make the difference between profit and loss for the year.
Weak holiday sales again this year will put more stores out of business, more people out of work, add to the commercial real estate crisis, and hand banks more defaulted loans.
The result would be an even weaker economy and greater likelihood of an economic downturn.
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I think you should change your headliner: "Retailers Hire Fewer Seasonal Workers for Holidays".
Edit, later on: apparently the creators of this content never get on-line to check their product ?