The government has its official jobs tally, but Angela Watkins has a less formal gauge: She watches the flow of applicants at her company's annual holiday hiring fair.
Watkins, head of hiring at Houdini Inc.-Wine Country Gift Baskets in Fullerton, said about 250 people showed up Monday to apply for the company's 800 seasonal call center and order processing positions. That was in addition to the 400 people who lined up the previous week.
PHOTO BY LEONARD ORTIZ, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
ADVERTISEMENT
Who?s hiring:
Target: 80,000-90,000
Macys: 80,000
Kohl's: 52,700
Amazon: 50,000
Toys R Us: 45,000
Watkins' verdict: About the same number of people applied for jobs this year as last year, a turnout that suggests many people still are looking for work, but nowhere near the numbers applying during the height of the recession.
"I'm seeing a lot of college students and people who have been looking for a long time and are willing to take whatever they can get," Watkins said. "But mainly, it's people who just want extra money for Christmas."
Holiday job seekers may have a little better luck this year than in the past. Snagajob, the online search engine for hourly work, said this will be the best year for holiday positions in five years based on its survey of 1,000 seasonal hiring managers.
Nearly two out of three employers surveyed (63 percent) said they would be adding staff for the holidays, up from 51 percent last year. And they will be hiring more workers ? an average 6.1 compared to 4.1 in 2011.
"For the past few seasons, we've had to talk about 'incremental improvements' being expected in holiday hiring," said Jason Hamilton, Snagajob's vice president of marketing. "But this year there are strong indications that there should be substantial movement in getting us back to the kinds of holiday hiring levels we were accustomed to prior to the recession."
| Hourly holiday hiring plans | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Managers hiring seasonal workers | 63% | 51% | 50% | 47% | 43% | 51%* |
| Average number of workers to be hired | 6.1 | 4.1 | 3.9 | 3.1 | 3.7 | 5.6* |
| Full-time/part-time jobs | 49%/51% | 44%/56% | 44%/56% | 45%/55% | 43%/57% | N/A |
| Average hourly pay | $10.70 | $10.60 | $10.60 | $10.40 | $10.00 | N/A |
John A. Challenger, whose outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas tracks holiday retail hiring, also expects holiday job prospects to be better this year than last year.
"I've estimated about 700,000 retail jobs (nationwide) this year up from about 660,000 last year," Challenger said.
Most of the big retailers are ramping up for the holidays. Job search engine Indeed.com lists 238 seasonal merchandising jobs currently open in Orange County.
Some employers already have done their hiring. A Marshalls department store opened in Placentia on Thursday. The store normally would hire 80 workers but brought on 100 because it is opening so close to the holidays, said Chris Strom, head of the county's Business Service Center, which helped coordinate Marshalls hiring fair.
Although retail gets all the attention, there's a lot of hiring in other sectors with seasonal demand.
Jim Clouse, manager of the Manpower temp agency branch in Irvine, said two of his Orange County clients offering transportation and delivery services are hiring 100 to 200 workers each for the holidays.
"Lots of things are going out and they will have a lot of deliveries and orders," he said.
Donald W. Stamets, general manager of The Island Hotel in Newport Beach, is just beginning his seasonal hiring. He did not say how many people would be added but said holiday bookings are strong so he will be bringing on more workers.
Nationally, Macys is bringing on 80,000 workers compared to 78,000 last year, while Amazon will add 50,000, up from 20,000 in 2011. Target, however, is cutting back. The retailer said it will fill 80,000 to 90,000 holiday positions this year, down from 92,000 last year.
Challenger said Amazon's hiring says a lot about employment in online retail.
"Amazon defies common wisdom that e-tailers don't hire as many people," he said.
Amazon also is adding permanent staff. On Thursday, Amazon opened a fulfillment center in San Bernardino and hired 700 workers.
Contact the writer: 714-796-3646 or mmilbourn@ocregister.com
Source: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/year-375163-hiring-holiday.html
invisible children kony 2012 space weather sunspots pac 12 tournament sun storm tri international criminal court
No comments:
Post a Comment