Metro Atlanta job-seekers may have a harder time finding traditional holiday retail jobs this fall, as store chains adjust their temporary hiring practices in the face of a still-wobbly economy.
Though the total number of available jobs nationally is expected to be about the same as last year, some retailers are giving more hours to the workers they already have, leaving fewer for seasonal help.
Others plan to put temporary workers on call, instead of giving them schedules in advance. And with retail workers holding onto jobs longer, those hired for the holidays will find fewer opportunities to parlay the gig into permanent work.
Few mall retailers indicated a need to participate in a job fair this year, according to a spokeswoman for Simon Malls, owner of Phipps Plaza, Lenox Square, Mall of Georgia, Northlake Mall and others. Several did so in 2010.
“There’s a lot more competition for these jobs in the high-unemployment era we’re in,” said John Challenger, CEO of global outplacement company Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
The National Retail Federation predicts a 2.8 percent increase in holiday sales this year, after a 5.2 percent gain in 2010. Retailers nationwide are expected to hire between 480,000 and 500,000 seasonal workers; they hired 495,000 in 2010, according to the NRF.
Few retailers said they knew how many of those jobs would be in metro Atlanta or Georgia, but Challenger said he thinks Georgia’s high unemployment rate will make jobs here scarcer.
“Retailers are reflective of their consumers,” he said. “Regional unemployment numbers are a key aspect of this.”
Metro Atlanta’s jobless rate was 10.4 percent in August, vs. 9.1 percent for the nation.
Janet Beard, 49, would prefer a full-time job, but she’s looking for any kind of work. Wednesday, the Canton resident was checking the status of her application to a Bealls Outlet store opening there at the end of October. She said since she stopped doing medical transcription over the summer, there’s “no telling” how many jobs she has applied for.
“I’ve been looking for quite a while, but I haven’t been able to find anything,” she said. “It’s been just frustrating.”
Beard has been living with her parents, who are retired and living off social security, for a year. As the holidays get closer, the prospect of having no money at Christmas becomes more depressing.
“I need the money,” she said. “I need the stability.”
At the unfinished Bealls store Wednesday, manager Suzanne Hackard had a card table outside, and a hand-written “Now Hiring” sign was affixed to the door. A few applicants sat in canvas folding chairs filling out forms, then were interviewed on the spot as construction went on behind them.
Hackard said Thursday was busier, and she received more than 100 applications for 20 positions.
“I have noticed that there are people who have had actual, big-company jobs, with computers or marketing,” Hackard said. “There’s a wider range age-wise.”
The jobs pay $7.40 an hour as advertised. Hackard said all of the part-timers she hires will be brought on on a 90-day temporary basis, though she hopes to keep most, if not all, after the season.
A Toys”R”Us spokeswoman said 10 percent of its 2010 holiday hires are still with the company going into this Christmas season.
Maryam Morse, national retail practice leader of Hay Group, said in the past, 60 to 70 percent of seasonal hires would have been able to keep their jobs past January. Now, it’s 20 percent or fewer.
“The possibility is less of turning your seasonal job into something permanent,” she said.
Morse said retailers can be more selective as job-seekers are increasingly willing to be underemployed.
Both she and Challenger said discount stores and those that cater to luxury shoppers seem to be in the best shape this holiday season, though some department stores -- like Macy’s, which intends to hire 78,000 workers, a 4 percent increase from the 75,000 it hired last year -- show signs of optimism as sales increase.
Increasing travel has been good for Atlanta-based Mori Luggage & Gifts, president John Mori said. He intends to increase his holiday workforce by about one person per store, meaning his 28 stores will have on average 13 workers, not 12, during the season. The rest of the year, stores have an average of eight.
“When the stores are busier, you need to have enough staff to serve the customers quickly,” he said.
Low consumer confidence hasn’t decreased hiring for companies like Kohl’s, which said it will hire 40,000 holiday workers this season, a 5 percent increase from last year due in part to its opening 30 new stores.
On the other hand, Toys”R”Us is bringing on 40,000 workers -- including about 1,000 in Georgia -- compared to 45,000 in 2010. Best Buy will add 15,000 workers, down from 29,000 last year.
“At the end of the day, there are not many jobs, and there are a lot of people looking for them,” Morse said.
Challenger said more retailers are hiring dual workforces: a core group of employees, and a group of flexible workers they will only call on as they see the need for more people.
Some of the companies that are cutting seasonal hires want to keep recruiting and training costs down, he said. If stores already have part-time workers, it is cheaper and easier to simply give them more hours.
“They’re really cautious on over-hiring,” Challenger said.
Still, Challenger said retailers could hire people deeper into the holiday season if spending is strong.
That could be good news for job-seekers like Kendra King, 22, who applied at the Canton Bealls. King has worked for a month at a RaceTrac store, after leaving a hair salon job when she had her second child.
King said she needs the extra money for necessities. She said a seasonal job would help get her through until tax time, when she expects a refund. With no car, she walks to her job at RaceTrac and lives with her mother.
“I’ll take what I can get right now,” she said.
