Retailers expected to add 410,000 seasonal jobs this holiday season
Higher labor costs, muted spending causing hesitancy in hiring
Labor market has shown signs of easing recently

NEW YORK, Sept 15 Reuters U.S. retailers will hire the lowest number of seasonal workers for this holiday season since 2008, due to increased labor costs and shaky consumer confidence, according to a report by Challenger, Gray Christmas provided exclusively to Reuters.

Retailers are expected to add just 410,000 seasonal jobs this season, according to an analysis of nonseasonally adjusted data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics BLS by the global outplacement and executive coaching firm. That is just slightly above the 324,900 workers they added during the last quarter of the financial recession of 2008.

U.S. retailers added 519,400 jobs in the last quarter of 2022, a 26 decline from the same period in 2021.

Holiday sales are estimated to grow at their slowest pace in five years as dwindling household savings and worries over the economy prompt consumers to spend judiciously, according to Deloitte.

Employers are already showing signs of hesitancy in hiring as the labor market starts to cool following a threeyear period of tightness.

U.S.based companies have so far announced just 8,000 planned hires for the holiday season, compared with the 258,201 planned hires announced by employers by this point in 2022, according to Challenger, Gray Christmas39; tracking.

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