Robust Demand for Holiday Hires, Experts SayAs retailers poise for what they’re betting will be a strong holiday shopping season, many are readying themselves by hiring a higher number of holiday employees than they have since the recession began.

The outplacement firm of Challenger, Gray & Christmas estimated that retailers nationwide could ramp up seasonal hiring by more than 800,000 jobs during the last quarter of the year. Numbers that high haven’t emerged since 1999.

Should the numbers pan out, the pace of seasonal hiring would also return to levels comparable to those seen in the days before the dot.com boom reached its height, the outplacement firm’s CEO, John A. Challenger, told CNBC.

Challenger’s group isn’t the only one predicting a brisk hiring season. The Hay Group also released a survey recently that revealed 70% of retailers intend to hire on pace with 2013. Some 24% also said it’s their intent to add more permanent staff before the year’s end.

Twenty-four percent of retailers said they have plans to hire more seasonal staff to support both offline and online shoppers while 29% said they will increase distribution center staffing for the season.

Not all major retailers are sold on the idea of extra hiring though. Target, for example, cut its hiring by 20% in 2013 and has stated it plans to stick to that number, about 70,000 seasonal hires, this year.

Here are just a few of the companies that have announced intended increases in seasonal hires:

  • UPS – This parcel shipping company found itself overwhelmed in 2013 as ecommerce orders flooded it with packages. Poising to meet demands more efficiently this year, the company has announced it will increase seasonal hiring by as much as 73% over its 2013 numbers. That could add as many as 95,000 temporary jobs to the company payroll.
  • FedEx – Faced with a similar shipping crunch as UPS, this company has plans to add about 50,000 seasonal workers. That’s up 10,000 over the temporary hires in 2013.
  • Walmart – The retail giant has a two-prong plan for handling the holiday rush. First, it has stated its current workers who want extra hours during the season will get first priority in scheduling. Second, it has announced plans to hire about 60,000 extra workers nationwide, which is a 10% rise over last year’s numbers.
  • Kohl’s – Also anticipating an increased demand from holiday shoppers, this retailer has stated it will increasing hiring numbers by a third over its 2013 seasonal staffing gains. That adds up to about 67,000 seasonal workers compared to last year’s 50,000.
  • Macy’s – This retailer is adding to its seasonal workforce, but by a modest amount compared to others. It intends to hire about 86,000 workers, up about 3,000 from last year.

While the success of holiday season 2014 remains to be seen, retailers are betting it’s going to be brisk. As they place those bets, workers looking for temporary jobs stand to gain.

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