The holiday rush is sinking in and this year's numerous shoppers might not be too happy about having to wait in a long line, hence they are more prone to do their holiday shopping online.
Amazon announced on Thursday, Oct. 13 that it will be hiring more than 120,000 temporary workers for this holiday season. That is 20 percent more than their hired seasonal workers last year. Its rival U.S. retailers such as Target, Kohl's and Macy's might either be scaling back to temporary employment or leaving their hiring quota unchanged.
Macy's, which is a subsidiary of Macy's and Bloomingdale's number of department store chains, said last September that it will be hiring 83,000 seasonal workers for the holidays; this is a 2 percent decline from the previous year.
The moves these companies are making reflect the changes in the way Americans view the modern-day holiday rush and how they shop for things.
The continuous rise in consumer optimism denotes that shoppers are likelier to skip personal trips to department stores to shop for presents and other holiday things. Instead, an increasing number will opt to shop online for convenience.
"We recognize the Thanksgiving weekend shopping experience is much different than it used to be as just as many people want that unique, exclusive online deal as they do that in-store promotion," Chief Executive and President of the National Retail Foundation Matthew Shay said in last year's Black Friday sales results press release.
Furthermore, the National Retail Federation is expecting this year's holiday sales to increase by 3.6 percent, which is a significantly higher rate since the recession period. With this, online store sales are also expected to increase by 7 to 10 percent.
The 14,000 temporary workers Amazon hired last year were able to obtain full-time jobs by the end of the holiday season. And it is expecting this number to increase this year.
"This is our favorite time of year - we love serving customers during the busy holiday season and we're excited to bring on more than 120,000 seasonal employees this year to support growing customer demand," Amazon Vice President of Global Customer Fulfillment, Mike Roth, said.
Vacant positions are available in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, California, Florida, Connecticut, Indiana, Kentucky, Georgia, Kansas, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio, Nevada, New Jersey, South Carolina, Texas, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Washington, Wisconsin, West Virginia, and Virginia.
Earlier this year, Amazon granted full-time positions to tens of thousands employees of its U.S. customer service and fulfillment centers. Additionally, existing full-time workers received comprehensive benefits and competitive salaries including stock awards, healthcare, amongst other bonuses.
It also offered employees groundbreaking programs like "Career Choice," which pre-pays around 95 percent of the total tuition for in-demand courses regardless of being able to work at Amazon.
Through the program, more than 7,000 employees in 10 countries have been able to pursue degrees in radiology, IT programming, nursing, game design and visual communications, among others.
The company is currently planning to build convenience store chains selling perishable goods and produce as well as pickup locations for online customers.
