October 25, 2003

Nation's Retailers Are Staffing Up for Holidays

With a larger hiring pool, job seekers should not expect the same bonuses and flexible scheduling retailers offered during the late 1990s, Challenger said. The lean staffing could lead to poorer customer service as stores rely on computerized kiosks to help shoppers instead of salespeople, Challenger said.

Nation's Retailers Are Staffing Up for Holidays, but Cautiously

By Janet Adamy, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.

Oct. 25--Retailers are hiring cautiously for the holiday season -- a sign they're wary of predictions that holiday sales will pick up after three disappointing years.

Several large retailers say they plan to hire the same or slightly more workers as last year, widely considered one of the worst Christmas selling seasons in decades. Instead of bulking up now, they're planning to take advantage of an abundant labor pool that makes it easy to get workers if customer traffic picks up closer to Christmas.

Stores typically boost their staffs by one-third during November and December to handle the influx of holiday shopping. That hiring fits into a bigger Christmas buying picture that experts use to predict the strength of the coming year's economy.

The National Retail Federation predicts holiday sales will increase 5.7 percent this year to $217.4 billion -- the biggest jump since 1999.

But retailers aren't staffing to handle a sales spike. Macy's West plans to hire about 22,200 workers to staff its 110 western division stores, which is about the same as last year, said Human Resource Director Helen Harris. Target Corp. plans to hire between 50 to 80 seasonal workers per store, flat with the past two years, spokeswoman Paula Thornton-Greear said. David M. Brian also plans to keep hiring even with last year by adding 100 workers to its 15 East Bay gift stores. Nordstrom plans to keep hiring flat, too.

"You never know until the doors open in December," said David McCaulou, president of David M. Brian. "We're going cautious, and we're not concerned because there's a lot of availability of Christmas help on the market this year."

In the late 1990s, the Bay Area technology boom left retailers scrambling to find seasonal help. But since the economy soured in 2001, holiday applications have soared, giving retailers the upper hand. After being lucky a few years ago to find a college student to staff their registers, retailers say they're getting applications from overqualified professionals looking to make ends meet.

This may be one of the most competitive holiday job markets in years, said John Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., which tracks the job market. He predicts stores will add only slight more than the 555,000 workers they took on last November and December. During the three years ending 1999, stores added 655,000 workers for Christmas selling.

"There's a lot of competition out there," Challenger said. Since large retailers typically add stores each year, the hiring decrease is particularly significant.

Like most retailers, David M. Brian started hiring seasonal workers earlier this month. Already it's received 50 applications, McCaulou said.

Unemployment in Contra Costa County was 5.1 percent in September, slightly down from 5.4 percent during the same month last year. In September 1999, it was 2.8 percent.

With a larger hiring pool, job seekers should not expect the same bonuses and flexible scheduling retailers offered during the late 1990s, Challenger said. The lean staffing could lead to poorer customer service as stores rely on computerized kiosks to help shoppers instead of salespeople, Challenger said.

Some stores are upping their hiring by a notable amount. Gap Inc. plans to increase hiring by as much as 30 percent at its Banana Republic, Old Navy and namesake stores nationwide. That amounts to 25,000 new hires at its Gap stores, spokeswoman Jordan Benjamin said. Borders Group Inc. will increase hiring between 6 percent and 7 percent from last year because it's expanding its temporary holiday store business, spokeswoman Anne Roman said.

Harris said Macy's stores can hire last-minute workers more quickly because they've shifted some hiring to the Internet.

Although stores may hire through Thanksgiving, experts caution against waiting to apply.

"The time to look for those jobs is now," said Ellen Tolley, spokeswoman for the National Retail Federation.

JOB HUNTING TIPS: Experts say this may be one of the most competitive holiday job markets in years. Some tips:

-- Offer to start working now as an on-call fill-in for vacationing or sick staffers.

-- Apply to stores that suit your skills. For example, if you're a golfer, look for a job at a sports store.

-- Look beyond the sales floor. Stores also hire for back-office positions, including shipping, receiving, warehousing, accounting, information technology and security.

-- Promote computer skills: Some stores are changing from traditional registers to computer-based systems.

-- Dress up for your interview. If you own a suit, wear it. It will make you stand out among all the applicants who come to interview in tattered jeans and T-shirts.

SOURCE: Challenger, Gray & Christmas

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Posted by Craig at October 25, 2003 04:32 PM