Retailers are cutting back on hiring sales clerks, stockroom employees and other temporary workers for the holidays - an indication that they expect another dour year-end shopping season.
And that means the Marylanders accustomed to getting a holiday job are going to find one of the most competitive job markets in recent years. The average manager will hire 16 percent fewer workers this holiday season, according to a nationwide survey by SnagAJob.com, a job search site for hourly workers; other employment surveys offer similar forecasts.
With September unemployment rates at 9.8 percent nationally and 7.2 percent in Maryland, many people will be looking for seasonal work until the economy improves and they can find a full-time job, employment experts say. At the same time, workers hit by pay cuts or furloughs might be looking for another paycheck to help make ends meet.
Among those competing for seasonal work is Loretta McKenstry.
The Parkville mother of three lost her state government job in September and has been looking for a new one ever since. She hopes to have better luck as retailers and other companies ramp up hiring for the holiday season, which traditionally starts the day after Thanksgiving. A temporary job is better than no job, says McKenstry, who has applied to several retailers and searched on Web sites such as SnagAJob.com.
"Usually every year there is a big pickup for the holiday season so maybe I'll be able to find something," said McKenstry, who noted that she didn't qualify for unemployment because she was a contract worker with the state.
The slowdown in hiring follows drastic cuts in the last holiday season. Even retailers that are hiring at 2008 levels, such as Macy's and Toys R Us, don't offer much consolation because seasonal hiring fell so much at the heart of the recession. Nationally, retailers hired 384,300 seasonal employees in 2008, down 46.7 percent from the 720,800 hired in the previous year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
UPS plans to hire 50,000 additional workers nationwide this holiday season, down from 60,000 in 2007. (The company didn't track numbers from last year.) It will hire 633 at three facilities in the Baltimore area for a variety of full-time and part-time jobs, including package handlers and driver helpers.
"For the past year, hiring trends have been falling," said Dan McMackin, a spokesman for UPS. "There are a lot of people looking for work. I think that's a good thing for us. We're going to have a lot of qualified candidates."
