With the economy in its current critical state, many retailers are scaling down or eliminating entirely their ?holiday hires? ? extra employees hired seasonally to deal with the increased demand around the holiday season. Retailers already struggling are looking to cut costs, and with the holiday season looking much less busy than usual, many are choosing not to hire holiday workers at all. A recent survey found that 57% of managers plan on hiring no holiday help this year, up 8% from last year. The same survey found that the average number of hires for this season is 3.7, down from 5.6 last year. Daniel Butler of the National Retail Federation suspects that holiday hire levels will drop to 2001 levels, when sales experienced a drop-off post 9-11.
See "Retailers cutting back on holiday hiring", Andrea Chang, Los Angeles Times, October 14, 2008