Despite some early concerns that the action would be slow, seasonal hiring spiked 42% for the retail sector in 2009.
Even though growth was modest -- and based on the depressed baseline set last year -- 547,400 holiday workers showed up at stores across the country to help handle the increased foot traffic and what eventually became a small gain in sales. A year earlier, holiday hiring fell to a 22-year low of 384,300, according to an analysis revealed to BloggingStocks by Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
"December retail sales were up 2.9 percent from a year ago," according to John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. "Of course, last year was the worst holiday sales season in decades." He continues, "However, retailers are undoubtedly happy with any gain, at this point, considering that we are in the nascent stages of a recovery and many consumers are still being very cautious with their money."
Hiring was up significantly year-over-year for both November and December. Last November, retailers hired 100,000 more workers than they had in November 2008, with the December hiring up 68,000. Nonetheless, these gains weren't sufficient to bring the 2009 holiday season to pre-recession levels. From 2004 to 2007, retailers hired an extra 722,300 additional workers in October, November and December.
"There may have been a sense among retailers this year that even if there weren't huge sales gains, there might still be an increase in store traffic. That may or may not have been the case, but retailers felt they needed more people on the floor or risk losing potential customers who might get frustrated about a lack of service," said Challenger.
More than the increase in sales and foot traffic noted throughout the 2009 holiday season, changing operations required retailers to hire more staff members than they had in the past. Many stores, Challenger observes, were extending their hours as Christmas approached, with some even staying open for 24 hours. With the season behind us, cuts are coming, and historically, retailers have let go of more people than the additional staff they hired to handle the holiday rush.
A year ago, retailers laid off 945,500 people in January and February, after hiring only 384,000 seasonal workers. But, this was undoubtedly influenced by the financial crisis, which was leading to layoffs in in many industries. In pre-recession years, however, the same dynamic was noted. In 2006, retailers hired 750,000 holiday workers and shed more than 800,000 positions the following January and February.
Comfort Zone Investing: Unconventional Thinking Needed
BP to Begin Scaling Back Oil Cleanup
Oil's Uncertain Economic Outlook
