Holiday Retail Hiring Strongest Since Before Recession
By: Stephanie Castillo
Updated: December 6, 2011
Last month was the
best November for holiday retail hiring since 2007, as retailers added
nearly twice as many employees as they did during November 2008 during
the height of the recession, said consultant Challenger,
Gray & Christmas Inc.
Non-seasonally
adjusted hiring rose 423,500 in November, up 27% from the same month
last year, according to statistics from the U.S. Board of Labor
Statistics. The widely reported seasonally adjusted figure, which
is intended to smooth out sharp fluctuations in seasonal hiring, showed a
net gain of 49,800. The consultancy said it uses the non-seasonally
adjusted figures to capture actual hiring activity.
October retail hiring
was 123,700, up 15% from a year earlier. So far this holiday season,
retailers have added 547,200 workers, up from 476,800 in October and
November of last year.
"While we expected
holiday retail hiring to be about the same as a year ago,
stronger-than-expected sales on both Black Friday and Cyber Monday could
result in a late hiring surge that could push December employment
gains up over last year's levels," said John A. Challenger, chief
executive of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
The Bureau of Labor
Statistics last week said the U.S. jobless rate sank to 8.6% in
November, the first drop below 9% since March and the lowest
unemployment rate since March of 2009.
