No surprise here, but holiday hiring among retailers is off to a slow start in 2009, with employment in the sector experiencing a net gain of just 63,500 jobs last month, according to non-seasonally adjusted data, according to Challenger, Gray and Christmas, one of the oldest outplacement consulting organization, in a press release today.
That was a slight improvement over October 2008, when retailers added only 59,100 workers. Last year, retail employment grew by just 384,300 between October and December, making it the worst holiday hiring season since 1989, when retailers added just 380,500 workers.
“There have been some signs that retail is picking up, so we could see a surge in November employment gains. If you are looking for a seasonal job, it would be wise not to give up the search. Retailers are taking a wait-and-see approach and could decide to bring in extra workers at the last minute,” said John A. Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
This comes against the backdrop of last Friday’s dismal employment rate which climbed to 10.2 percent and the loss of another 190,000 jobs from the nation’s payrolls.
However, there is a glimmer of hope in that employment at temporary employment agencies grew by 33,700 jobs. That was the third consecutive increase in this category and the largest since October 2007.
“This is significant because temporary employment is typically where we see the first job gains in a recovery. Cautious employers are reluctant to add too many permanent workers this early in the recovery, so they turn to temporary workers. As the economy improves, these temporary workers are converted to full-time, permanent workers. We are definitely headed in the right direction,” said Challenger.
