It’s Most Wonderful Time of Year for Retail Job Seekers.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-26/it-s-most-wonderful-time-of-year-for-retail-job-seekers.html

Wanda Tucker was hired on the spot for a part-time job with Gap Inc.’s Banana Republic chain earlier this month after searching for a full-time position since April.

“I thought I was just going in for an interview,” said Tucker, 53, of Rex, Georgia, who’d finished five years of Army Reserves postings before entering the workforce. “It has been a blessing to have some money coming into the household.”

Workers are facing the most favorable job market for seasonal work since the 18-month recession that started in December 2007, getting hired with fewer interviews and in some cases with higher pay.

About 821,000 workers will be hired for retail seasonal jobs this year, up 11 percent from a year ago and the highest since records were started in 1990, estimates Michael Niemira, former director of research for the International Council of Shopping Centers Inc. and now founder of economic forecasting firm The Retail Economist LLC in Tucson, Arizona.

Big retailers Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp., Kohl’s Corp., J.C. Penney Co. and Amazon.com Inc. will hire 304,000 compared with 283,000 last year, he said. The estimate doesn’t include United Parcel Service Inc. in Atlanta, which has said it will add as many as 95,000 temporary workers, and caterers, who are expecting an increase in holiday parties.

“I don’t want to say there is pressure on wages but there is an alignment of wages with demand,” said Jack Kleinhenz, chief economist with the National Retail Federation in Washington, who is estimating as many as 800,000 workers will be added. “There is some tightening” in the job market.

Wage Increase

The unemployment rate for the retail and wholesale trade sector fell to 5.1 percent in October, the lowest since early 2008 in the initial months of the recession, Labor Department figures show. Wages and salaries for retail workers rose 2.5 percent in the third quarter from the same period in 2013, the biggest increase in more than four years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Seasonal job seekers using the website Snagajob.com are finding work in an average of 28 days this year compared with 45 days last year, company Chief Executive Officer Peter Harrison said. The Richmond, Virginia-based online matching service focuses on part-time and hourly positions.

Consumer Confidence

Consumer confidence rose in November to the highest level in seven years, according to the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary sentiment index, reported Nov. 14. A separate report by the Conference Board yesterday showed an unexpected decline from October, which was a seven-year high, while a gauge of consumers’ willingness to buy appliances rose to its highest level since at least 2010 and purchase intentions for televisions were at a two-year high.

UPS Deliveries

UPS expects to deliver 585 million packages in December, or the equivalent of 1.9 packages for every person in the country. The company peaked at 31 million packages delivered in a single day last holiday season; this year it expects six days to surpass that single-day figure.

 I am sure on Friday the sales are going to be just crazy.

Employees assist shoppers at a Wal-Mart store in Los Angeles.