Retailers Step Up Hiring For Christmas Shopping Season
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Consumers may be warming up to the Christmas shopping season despite a still-chilly economic climate, and that may mean more jobs — at least temporarily.
Retailers are on pace to hire the most temporary workers for the holiday season in three years, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. And the U.S. Dept. of Labor says stores increased their payrolls by 150,900 in October — three times more than the same month in 2009.
KNX 1070's Jon Baird Reports
In 2008, hiring in October for the holiday season fell to its lowest level in 22 years, with only 38,600 seasonal workers being added. October hiring had reached as high as 157,800 in 2004. Retailers begin to hire in October in preparation for Christmas and they add even more workers in November and December.
From 2004 to 2007, retailers hired on average more than 700,000 seasonal employees in the last three months of the year.
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