The Zhitong Finance App learned that Amazon (AMZN.US) plans to recruit more than 300,000 employees during the holiday shopping season, an increase of 20% over the same period last year, making it a notable exception to the overall poor holiday employment market.
Amazon said in a blog post on Tuesday that these positions include full time, part time, and seasonal jobs, and that the average hourly wage for temporary workers is $20. The company is using medical benefits to incentivize seasonal employees to stay until the end of the year — anyone who persists until January of the following year and works at least 30 hours a week can get health insurance.
According to the re-employment placement company Challenger, Gray and Christmas, the number of seasonal recruiters in the retail industry this year is likely to be lower than last year's 450,000, which will be the lowest number of holiday hires since 2008. Major retailers such as Walmart (WMT.US) and Target (TGT.US) once again did not announce seasonal recruitment plans, marking a completely different shift from the drastic expansion of recruitment during the pandemic. The company estimates that the number of seasonal hires for logistics and warehousing companies will be roughly the same as a year ago.
Andy Charinger, the company's chief revenue officer, said, “In the past three years, almost every recruitment announcement we've seen has been smaller and more carefully calculated than the pre-pandemic style of play.”
Seasonal recruitment is expected to drop slightly
According to Adobe (ADBE.US), online spending by US shoppers in November and December will reach US$275.1 billion, an increase of 6.7% over 2025. According to eMarketer Inc. estimates, of every $1 spent online, nearly $0.4 goes to Amazon.
United Parcel Service (UPS.US) has been cutting the volume of packages from Amazon to focus on the more profitable business segment. Earlier this month, the company announced plans to hire more than 100,000 seasonal employees, roughly the same size as previous years.