All right it is that time of year again People are looking to make some extra Cash for the holidays and uh they're out Hunting for maybe a temporary job but Those seasonal jobs might not be so easy To find this year a job search engine Indeed reported 2023 seasonal job Postings are at their lowest point since 2019 which is a first in the Post-pandemic era so what does this mean For consumers and the current state of Retail joining me now here in studio 57 For more analysis is Jordan Holeman She's a business reporter at the New York Times good to see you good to see You okay so let's talk about it According to uh indeed uh seasonal job Searches they're up people you know want To make some extra cash but um posts are Down by 6% searches are up 19% post down By 6% what's going on so the calculation Kind of flipped on its head because the Past few years retailers and other Companies in the service industry were Like we need workers we can't find Enough people working um and now now the Balance has shifted people are out there Wanting to work but one of the Dynamics That's happened is because in that Initial pandemic a lot of these Companies fur or laid off workers so There's this huge ramp up that they H Had to hire tens of thousands of people It's normalized a bit so it's not that
Big number they need anymore and they're Being a little bit more cautious about Expenses and having labor on their Balance sheet is expensive that makes a Lot of sense when I first saw these Numbers I was like oh it probably has Something to do with people you know Shopping online but then I thought well Even if you're shopping online maybe you Need fewer people in the stores but you Need them somewhere else maybe right Which brings me to this question uh Macy's Walmart Target they all say They're not going to hire as many people However Amazon's going to hire 100,000 More workers um for the holiday season Is that because we're all online Shopping away yeah so warehouse work is Definitely booming and Amazon speaks to That exactly Target also interestingly Said a lot of their jobs are in that Supply chain Logistics space Because the Way of the World um ecommer Sals obviously went up during the pic It's come down but that's just still Higher than 2019 MH and you know I think Another shift that we've seen over the Last few years well I'm going to say the Last decade is like this whole idea of That Black Friday rush you know I Remember being a local reporter if I was Working the day after Thanksgiving I was Going to the mall and we were going to Fight together right me and all the
Crowds and then suddenly and it happened Really rapidly no one was at the mall on Black Friday it seems like retailers are Hip to that too and they're you know Putting things on sale much earlier Totally yeah Walmart started it's Black Friday sales on Wednesday so yesterday So hope you got some stuff but it's very Much that when I talk to retailers I say Well how important is Black Friday still It's still a it's still important they Describe it as less of a peak and more Of a heel like you know you still need To staff your store you still need to Prepare for your website to see extra Traffic but it's all just like extended Which makes it a little bit more Complicated going back to seasonal Hiring to know exactly when you need People in your store because if people Start shopping in early November you Should be as staffed up for Black Friday As if it's after Thanksgiving yeah it Makes it difficult to predict because The the reason that Black Friday Happened when it did was to launch Everybody into that holiday shopping Season but if that's sort of spread out Um yeah I can see how it's hard to kind Of predict your books and what you're Going to need in terms of people product Exactly and the other thing about um These indeed numbers is that retailers Have been slower to announce their
Seasonal hiring so when I was talking to Some um companies that help with Temporary hiring they were like we still Expect maybe some announcements to come Later in the season Once those companies Realize how much demand they need and They're gauging this period to determine That that makes a lot of sense uh Jordan Uh Holman thank you so much thank you For having me
