Thirty-six percent of retailers plan to have extra hands on deck around the holidays, a healthy jump from 29 percent in 2011, according to a nationwide CareerBuilder survey. The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive  among more than 2,400 employers between Aug. 13 and Sept. 6, 2012.


While seasonal hiring is expected across the entire country, the five cities with the largest economies and plans to hire include:



  • Los Angeles – 22 percent of employers plan to hire season help, 40 percent plan to transition them to full-time positions

  • New York – 16 percent of employers plan to hire season help, 35 percent plan to transition them to full-time positions

  • Atlanta – 15 percent of employers plan to hire season help, 31 percent plan to transition them to full-time positions

  • Philadelphia – 14 percent of employers plan to hire season help, 36 percent plan to transition them to full-time positions

  • Chicago – 13 percent of employers plan to hire season help, 31 percent plan to transition them to full-time positions

“An increase in consumer confidence is helping to fuel the best seasonal hiring the U.S. has seen in recent years,” said Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder. “While the bulk of seasonal recruitment falls within the retail space, companies across industries are hiring for a wide range of positions to support their business operations as they wrap up the year.”


When looking at functional areas within an office or store, popular areas for recruitment this holiday season include:



  • Customer Service – 23 percent

  • Administrative/Clerical support – 15 percent

  • Hospitality – 15 percent

  • Shipping/Delivery – 14 percent

  • Accounting/Finance – 9 percent

  • Inventory management – 8 percent

  • Technology – 8 percent

  • Sales (other than retail) – 7 percent

More than six-in-ten (62 percent) employers plan to pay holiday staff $10 or more an hour in 2012, up from 53 percent last year. Twenty-two percent will pay $16 or more, up from 14 percent last year.


Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Interactive© on behalf of CareerBuilder among 2,494 U.S. hiring managers and human resource professionals and 3,976 U.S. workers (employed full-time, not self-employed, non-government) ages 18 and over between August 13 and September 6, 2012 (percentages for some questions are based on a subset, based on their responses to certain questions). With pure probability samples of 2,494 and 3,976, one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/-1.96 and +/-1.55 percentage points, respectively. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies.