Holiday job seekers face ‘extremely tight’ market

Nicholas Strahl always finds extra work during the holidays. But this year is an exception.

Mr. Strahl, 41, worked part-time as a retail sales associate at an office supply store outside Indianapolis, Indiana. While the salary is “okay,” he said “a little more never hurts.”

Finding seasonal holiday jobs, making extra cash to pay bills, and buying holiday gifts for friends and family has been a challenge. He started looking in early October and applied to CVS, Best Buy and many other retailers, to no avail.

“I’ve never seen a job market like this — it’s crazy,” he said.

“That doesn’t really leave a lot of power for people who just want to get a job or supplement their income.”

Seasonal hiring is expected to drop to its lowest level since the 2008 recession, according to the National Retail Federation. The divestment is a sign of caution among U.S. businesses in the face of tariffs and consumer anxiety, and comes as more people look for work in a cooling job market.

The industry group expects retailers to hire 265,000 to 365,000 seasonal workers, down from 442,000 last year.

Employment consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas is also forecasting the weakest holiday season for retail hiring in 15 years, saying tariffs, inflation and reliance on automation are dampening demand for seasonal hiring.

If Mr. Strahl can’t find a holiday job, he plans to cut back on holiday gifts and put off some car repairs. He will wait to replace his old laptop.

“At this point,” he said, “I’m willing to take whatever I can get.”

Indeed’s data shows that while seasonal jobs have remained largely stable compared to last year, more people are looking for seasonal work.

And in retail, traditionally one of the holiday’s biggest employers, opportunities are dwindling.

Allison Shrivastava, an economist at Indeed Hiring Labs, said the labor market is “frozen with frostbite.” She said seasonal job postings remained stable compared with last year, reflecting a paralyzed labor market.

“You have a larger labor pool competing for fewer jobs,” she added.

The government shutdown lasted for more than a month, ending on November 13, leading to delays in the release of official labor market data. But last week’s final September data showed Surprising pick-up in hiring After a dull summer.

Employers added 119,000 jobs in September, more than twice what many analysts expected, but the unemployment rate rose to 4.4% from 4.3%.

Job openings in retail fell 22% in October from last year, according to data from workforce intelligence firm Revelio Labs. The decline suggests retailers have less need for holiday workers.

“We’re just not seeing the usual pick-up in holiday hiring,” said Lisa Simon, chief economist at Revelio.

Several leading retailers, including Target and Walmart, have not said how many employees they will add during the holidays.

A Walmart spokesperson said the company may be recruiting on a store-by-store basis, but overtime during the holidays will primarily be given to existing employees.

The lack of specificity marks a departure from previous years, when companies announced seasonal hiring plans in advance.

By comparison, Amazon said it will employ the same number of workers in its fulfillment and shipping network as it did over the past two years.

Andy Challenger, senior vice president of sales for Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a statement, “The cautious pace of announcements thus far suggests companies are not betting on big seasonal gains.”

most recently High-profile layoffs In large companies in the United States, including retail.

Some smaller retailers are also taking a cautious approach ahead of the holidays, further limiting job seekers’ options for finding work at local stores.

For the Hobby Works chain of two Maryland toy stores, the pressure from the cost of tariffs and the impact of this year’s economic policies has been compounded in recent weeks by the federal government shutdown.

The company, which has 24 employees outside Washington, has delayed its usual hiring schedule for seasonal workers, said President Michael Brey.

He said government workers who found themselves without pay for more than a month before the shutdown ended were concerned about reduced pay for government workers, prompting stores to cut costs by scaling back hiring.

“Hanukkah always happens, Christmas always comes, so we try not to change our recruiting model too much,” Mr. Bray said.

“But this is the first year where we’re making very slow progress.”

Two years ago, Tanya Secord made it through the application process and found a temporary job at Target, working as a part-time cashier during the 2023 holiday season.

This year, her job search has been met with disappointment after disappointment.

Ms. Secord, 52, sent her resume to retailers such as Costco and Target, hoping her experience working in retail would be helpful. But each application was met with either radio silence or rejection.

“It was very stressful because grocery prices were up and the overall cost of living was ridiculously high,” said Ms. Secord, who eventually found a position as a receptionist in early November.