Retailers Recruiting Holiday Help
Brace yourself this Christmas for longer lines at cash registers and fewer sales people on the selling floor.
With a healthy U.S. economy and low unemployment levels, retailers are scrambling to find holiday workers to do everything from stocking shelves to greeting customers at store entrances during the busy Christmas season.
“There just aren’t a lot of people coming in for jobs,” said Larry Friend, a store manager for Kmart in Omaha, Neb. “We’re not desperate yet, but the competition is fierce and we still need workers.”
It’s the second straight year that retailers are pressed to find qualified help. As the economy continues its steady growth, fewer Americans are looking for seasonal jobs to earn a little extra cash.
The Labor Department reported Friday the nation’s unemployment rate sank to 4.7 percent in October, a 24-year low. Meanwhile, consumer confidence in the economy remains at a 28-year high.
“Retailers are caught in a bind,” aid Dr. Paul Kozlowski, an economics professor at the University of Toledo. “They need good workers, but they can’t afford to raise their wages, and the number of applicants is very small with this booming economy.”
Over the last five years, retailers increased their holiday staffs by an average of about 3.8 percent, according to the National Retail Federation, a trade group.
Desperate to recruit workers, retailers are doing more than just hanging “Help Wanted” signs in store windows. Some are offering charities money to recommend workers; others ask their own employees to refer friends and family.
The Target discount store in Kansas City has gone beyond the city limits to find employees. To accommodate workers from far away, the retailer has hired private buses and asked the local transit authority to alter city bus routes.
“We’ve had to make some very big strategy efforts to get workers,” said Steve Kenady, regional personnel director at Target, a division of Dayton Hudson Corp. “The competition for service workers is incredible. You can’t just depend that they will want to come to your stores.”
Lands’ End Inc. depends on its regular staff to find many of its 2,600 seasonal workers. Part of this year’s referral drive included an in-house contest that gave away 34 Green Bay Packer football tickets to employees who recommended friends and family.
The company also is busing in students from a University of Wisconsin campus 50 miles away from its Dodgeville, Wis., headquarters and hired workers from a nearby cheese factory that closes for the winter months.
“The unemployment rate where we are is well below the national average,” said Anna Schryver, spokeswoman for Lands’ End. “We have to look elsewhere to find workers.”
On a national level, Kmart advertises seasonal employment opportunities on pamphlets stuffed into its credit card bills. The Troy, Mich.-based retailer also posts job opportunities on its Internet home page.
While worker shortages have been found through much of the Midwest and Southern states, many retailers in areas with higher unemployment are still getting an influx of inquiries from prospective employees.
“We get calls all the time,” said a manager of a Gap store in New York City, who asked her name not be used. “No shortages here.”