Fewer Americans set to be hired this holiday season

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Fewer Americans will be hired for seasonal work this holiday season as many companies have been quiet about their upcoming hiring plans, according to a report.

While many large U.S. retailers announce seasonal hiring plans at the start of fall, many have not made such announcements so far this year.

Seasonal hiring is expected to drop 2.5 percent from last year to about 450,000 new jobs added in Q4, according to predictive data from career consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

That’s a sizable decrease from the 461,500 jobs added in 2025, which was the smallest seasonal gain since 2008 and 15 percent below the 543,100 jobs added in Q4 of 2024.

Although consumers appear to be spending — despite high prices — the lack of hiring targets publicly announced so far suggests that retailers are planning to rely on existing staff and on-demand pools rather than committing to hiring more seasonal employees.

“That resilience is not translating into large, early hiring commitments from the biggest Retailers,” said Andy Challenger, workplace expert and Chief Revenue Officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

“Prices are still high, tariffs continue to work through supply chains, and Retailers are leaning on automation, existing associates, and on-demand pools before hiring net-new seasonal workers,” Challenger continued.

“It’s more about restocking staffing plans surgically than a return to the 900,000-plus seasonal hiring years we saw in 2020 and 2021,” he added.

Challenger noted that consumers may also shop more frugally in the fourth quarter amid rising prices and high cost of living.

“Consumers are stretched but they are still showing up. Back-to-school spending held up, and the August surge in retail sales tells us households are not yet in retreat,” Challenger said. “But almost every hiring announcement we’ve seen in the last three years is smaller and more surgical than the pre-pandemic playbook.”

He added: “Even if the big names come in at last year’s numbers, the total will likely fall well short of the 2019-2021 peaks.”

While there have been fewer public hiring commitments than usual, some big employers have made recent announcements, including Spirit Halloween and Michaels.

Spirit Halloween announced the largest seasonal hiring push in its history, adding 52,000 associates to staff over 1,500 stores across the U.S. and Canada. Meanwhile, Michaels plans to hire more than 10,000 seasonal workers

The report noted, however, that Amazon hired 250,000 seasonal employees during each of the last three years, but has not announced its plans yet.

Bath & Body Works, which also usually announces its hiring plans by this time of year, had not made any public announcements yet.

Additionally, other retailers like Target and Kohl’s typically hire about 100,000 and 90,000 roles, respectively, each holiday season. While both are in the midst of their holiday hiring, neither has publicly announced specific hiring targets.