Challenger: Holiday retail hiring down from record levels

After beginning with its strongest start in 14 years, the pace of holiday hiring in November slipped below last year’s level, suggesting that retailers may be reining in expectations for a “bountiful” Christmas selling season.

Retailers added 471,000 jobs nationally in November, down nearly 5 percent from a year ago, when retailers hired a record 494,400 workers.

That’s according to an analysis of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ non-seasonally adjusted employment data that the Chicago–based Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., a global-outplacement firm, released today.

In addition to the November decline, the government adjusted the October retail-job gain downward from the initial figure of 159,500 to 158,000.

Overall, retail-job gains through the first two months of the year-end, holiday-hiring surge totaled 629,000, which is about 2 percent lower than the 643,800 jobs added in October and November 2012, Challenger said.

Even though November hiring was down from a year ago, it is “important” to understand that retailers in November 2012 added more workers to their payrolls in a single month than ever before, John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in the news release.

Challenger cited non-seasonally adjusted government data going back to 1939.

Despite the year-over-year decline, last month still represents the second highest one-month employment gain for this industry on record, he added.

“Unless there is significant retail hiring in December, year-end retail-employment gains probably will not match last year’s pace. With the [Washington, D.C.–based] National Retail Federation forecasting tepid growth this holiday season [combined with] weak Thanksgiving-weekend spending, a December hiring surge is looking less and less likely,” said Challenger.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com