As the holiday season inches closer, it’s around the time that employers begin thinking about seasonal hiring to get some extra help around big-business holidays like Black Friday and Christmas.
Last year, Americans saw a peak holiday hiring season, but things might look a little different this year. With inflation pushing Americans to find a second source of income and businesses putting a pause on hiring in the midst of recession fears, employees want seasonal jobs. At the same time, employers are reluctant to hire them.
Although companies like Amazon and Target plan to hire 100,000 workers, the effects of hiring hesitancy have begun to impact retail giants like Walmart. The company recently announced it only plans to hire 40,000 workers this year – a sizable difference from 2021, when they hired 150,000 seasonal workers.
Interest up, demand down
Research from Hiring Lab, an economic research team from Indeed, found that employees are eager for seasonal work. Job seeker searches for seasonal work as of Sept. 30 rose 33% compared with 2021, the highest it’s been as a share of total job searches since 2019.
Even as employee interest increases, employer demand trends in the opposite direction. Job postings from employers looking for holiday help are down 8.2% from 2021. The numbers may reflect hiring hesitancy from employers with a looming recession and layoff fears.
Employer demand is still 5.2% above pre-pandemic years. Fifty-six percent of job listings were from the retail sector, followed by sales (8.5%), loading and stocking (2.3%) and customer service (2.1%).
Similar to employer demand being down, employer urgency isn’t as high as it was last year and employers are offering fewer hiring incentives. However, hiring urgency is still higher than in pre-pandemic times.
Get the most out of seasonal hiring
In a volatile world, seasonal hiring is a weighty decision. Use these three tips to make the seasonal hiring experience good for your company and seasonal workers.
- Make a good impression: The holidays can get hectic and seasonal workers may feel isolated or disconnected from the company during their time. A whopping 83% of workers report they won’t return to their previous seasonal job, according to a report from Snagajob. Treat holiday workers with respect and cultivate a welcoming environment to make sure they come back next year.
- Know what workers want: To attract top talent, it’s important to understand what seasonal workers want out of an employer. Seasonal workers in 2022 want benefits like weekly payouts, flexible scheduling, sign-on bonuses and potential for permanent hire, according to Snagajob.
- Prioritize the candidate experience: A good candidate experience is essential to attracting top talent, so you may want to consider streamlining your seasonal hiring process to help the application process and interviewing go as smoothly as possible.