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