Staffing Trends
The 2024 Seasonal Jobs Outlook for Recruiters
With the projected rise of holiday spending, businesses face a mixed outlook for seasonal job recruiting in 2024. With more competition among job seekers and changing hiring trends, companies will need to adapt their recruiting strategies to navigate this year's unique challenges. Find out how these factors shape the seasonal jobs market and how businesses like yours can prepare.
The State of Seasonal Hiring in 2024
According to a PWC report, holiday spending is projected to grow by 7%, with an average of $1,638 spent on gifts, entertainment, and travel. While the September Jobs Report, which added 254,000 jobs, exceeded expectations, many experts predict that seasonal hiring across the retail industry will be less robust. Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement firm, predicts retailers will add 520,000 new jobs in the last quarter of the year. This estimate is well below 2023’s total of 564,000.
Businesses like Amazon and Target have posted job openings that were on par with last year (250,000 and 100,000, respectively), but others are cutting back on their holiday hiring plans. Macy’s only plans to hire 31,500 seasonal workers this year, down from 38,000 in 2023. Walmart hasn’t announced specific numbers but plans to offer its current employees extra hours and will only bring on seasonal workers on a case-by-case basis.
Seasonal Hiring in 2024 has a Mixed Outlook
The seasonal hiring season does not seem as dire as in 2023, with Indeed reporting that seasonal/holiday job postings were down from pre-pandemic levels. This year, the popular job board reports that job postings are back up, thanks to retail positions making up 66% of all job postings.
Some companies, like Walmart and Macy’s, are scaling back on their hiring this holiday season. A big reason for this is that consumer spending is expected to decrease this holiday season. Inflation, the higher costs of living, and layoffs plaguing many industries have negatively affected consumers all year. Even though the Fed cut interest rates last month, it may take a while to alleviate the strain on people’s wallets.
“It seems that holiday shoppers will be more frugal this year, as multiple years of high inflation and high interest rates have taken a considerable toll.”
According to a September report from Bankrate, 33% of people plan to spend less on holiday shopping this year than last year. In that same report, a quarter of respondents said holiday shopping will stress their budgets. 59% of consumers in the PWC report cited earlier reported that inflation would most likely influence how much they spend this holiday season. Rising credit card debt and less money in people’s savings accounts can also affect how much they spend on holiday gifts and travel. As a result, many companies don’t see the need for as many seasonal workers as they’ve had in the past, as they don't anticipate as many shoppers this season.
While the need for seasonal workers may be lower than before the pandemic, the demand for seasonal jobs outpaces the number of positions. More workers are searching for seasonal work, making the competition for these positions higher than in the past. The talent pool of seasonal workers is not only bigger but more diverse. According to the 2024 Holiday Hiring Report from Snagajob, 40% of seasonal workers are predicted to be from Gen Z and 25% from Gen X. That same report found that nearly half of seasonal workers want flexible schedules while the others want a fixed set of hours.
64% of respondents will take a job in any seasonal industry they qualify for if the job is close to them.
How Hiring Managers Can Navigate the 2024 Holiday Hiring Season
With different factors coming into play this holiday season, how can hiring managers find workers?
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Some strategies hiring managers can use include starting the recruiting process as early as possible, creating attention-grabbing job posts, and using strategies to keep your seasonal staff engaged through the busiest time of year. Click here to dive deeper into these holiday hiring tips and advice.
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