Report: Holiday hiring reflects online emphasis

As more retailers announce their seasonal hiring plans, filling omnichannel-supporting roles will be a priority.



“Challenger’s Seasonal Holiday Outlook” revealed that retail hiring this holiday season will remain unchanged from a year ago, staying steady at 738,800 positions available during the final three months of the year. Target and Kohl’s recently announced plans to add 70,000 and 69,000 positions respectively, which collectively will account for just shy of 20% of total hires. What’s notable, however, is where the jobs are available.



“While seasonal retail jobs remain flat or shrink, the biggest increase in holiday hiring in recent years has been transportation and warehousing, as more and more holiday shopping is done online,” said John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.



Target specifically reported it will be place 7,500 people in its distribution facilities, which ship online orders and send products to stores, the report said. Out of the 40,000 seasonal workers J.C. Penney plans to hire this year, 38,000 will be positioned in stores and the rest to help handle jcp.com orders, according to an article in The Dallas Morning News.



Meanwhile, Kohl’s will be making similar moves and adding positions across its warehouses, e-commerce distribution centers and buy online, ship to store ((BOPUS) operations. (The retailer did not reveal how many positions were dedicated to these jobs.)



As the industry awaits FedEx’s and UPS’ holiday hiring announcements as well, observers expect both companies to add at least 150,000 positions collectively — the same amount of hires they made in 2015, the report said.



“We continue to move from brick-and-mortar toward click-and-order,” he said. “However, in this Internet era of holiday shopping, brick-and-mortar fulfillment facilities need seasonal workers.”