US retailers expected to add just 4.1 lakh seasonal jobs this holiday season, lowest since 2018

livemint.com:

labour market starts to cool post a three-year period of tightness. Compared to last year when US-based firms had announced 2,58,201 planned hires, they have announced only 8,000 planned hires for the coming holiday season, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas' tracking.

"We have never gone this far into September and not had big hiring predictions from retailers," said Andrew Challenger, senior vice president at Challenger, Gray & Christmas. "It's really surprising", he said adding that it signals uncertainty and lower seasonal hiring trends this year.

The report by Challenger does not include retail firms like US grocery chain Kroger. The company has said that it plans to hire "thousands" of seasonal workers, and Bath & Body Works, which it does not track.

The job hiring by Kroger will be included in an updated version of the report to be published in the coming days. However, the current seasonal hiring announcements fall short of what it was in the season in 2022.