Although the holidays are still weeks away many employers have already announced hiring plans to carry them through the busiest shopping season of the year. While not all major retailers are preparing with the typical hiring blitz, there has been a wave of hiring announcements from retailers and logistics companies alike. With Indeed data we can learn how employers and job seekers navigate the holiday hiring season.
Employers posting holiday jobs earlier
To get a better picture of how this holiday hiring season will look we compare the trend in the holiday labor market for 2017 so far with the previous two years. Employers typically begin posting their holiday positions in September. However, this year it seems that employers aimed to get a jump on the holiday season by posting a high volume of jobs immediately after Labor Day weekend. This is perhaps due to employers looking to be first to the market in light of a tight labor market. Moreover, if the current trend in the level of 2017 holiday postings continues, the volume of holiday postings as a share of all postings on Indeed will exceed that of the past two years.
Holiday job seekers start searching in September
Employers and job seekers are largely in sync around the holiday season. Job seekers begin their searches in September, around when employers are beginning to post jobs. Unlike postings, searches this year look like they may remain in line with past years. Searches for holiday jobs taper off in early to mid November, which is about the time that the level of postings starts its descent as well.
Top companies for holiday jobs
The companies posting the most seasonal positions on Indeed are some the largest retailers in the US. It is of note that Toys ‘R’ Us is one of the companies at the top of the list considering their recent financial troubles.
Salaries
Based on salaries listed in Indeed job posting descriptions we can get a sense of how much extra money seasonal workers can earn during the holidays. The table below displays the average hourly wage for several common seasonal positions. While the pay ranges are relatively low, ranging from $11 to $14 an hour, those workers that have enough experience to fill a manager or senior role are in better position.
Strong numbers holiday job posting numbers thus far indicate that employers are expecting a busy holiday season. From our data we can see that those workers looking to earn some extra cash were better off to start looking for holiday jobs right after Labor Day, but likely still have ample opportunity to do so.
Methodology
We define holiday job postings as those with one or more holiday-related terms in the job title, including but not limited to holiday, seasonal, and Christmas. Holiday job searches are defined as those containing one or more of the same list of holiday-related terms.
Salary data are gathered from Indeed job postings in August – September 2017 that listed a salary in the job description. The average hourly wage is calculated as the log-average of all salaries posted for that particular job title.
