This Retailer Is Hiring the Most People for the Holidays

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Nov 24, 11:00AM EST

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This Retailer Is Hiring the Most People for the Holidays — © YinYang / Getty Images

Job consultancy Challenger Gray & Christmas expects retailers to add over 700,000 jobs for the holiday season. Nearly half of these jobs will be offered by two retailers that are hiring the most people for the holiday — Amazon and Walmart.

But retail holiday hiring is going to be challenging this year. Labor shortages and the need to pay people higher wages than in years past have changed the retail employment landscape. Can retailers find the people they need and post spectacular results for the final quarter of the year?

The National Retail Federation expects total dollar sales to rise by as much as 10.5% compared to 2020. That is an increase of up to $859 billion. NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay explained, “There is considerable momentum heading into the holiday shopping season.” With rising incomes and strong household balance sheets, according to Shay, “consumers are in a very favorable position” heading into the holiday season.

In addition, “Retailers are making significant investments in their supply chains and spending heavily to ensure they have products on their shelves to meet this time of exceptional consumer demand,” Shay said.

In order to hire enough seasonal workers, retailers plan to use several tactics. The New York Times reports that these include higher wages, signing bonuses, and even college tuition contributions. Jeff Gennette, the chief executive of Macy’s, told the paper, “there is a war for talent on the front lines.” (This is America’s worst retailer.)

The 2021 holiday season represents a needed rebound for the entire industry, which suffered brutal sales declines in 2020. This probably hastened the shuttering of locations of J.C. Penney and Sears but also forced retailers to strengthen their balance sheets to survive a period of plunging revenue.

While the pendulum of profitable retail operations has swung to e-commerce, led by Amazon, millions of people still visit traditional stores. And e-commerce has boosted another industry. UPS, FedEx, and the U.S. Postal System move many products bought online and sent to homes and businesses.

To determine the companies hiring the most people for the holidays, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed press releases about the anticipated season hires planned by America’s largest retailers and package deliverers. Companies without specific figures were not considered.

Two retailers will add 150,000 seasonal employees each. They are, incidentally, the largest retailers in America: Amazon and Walmart. UPS is next, planning to hire 100,000 seasonal workers. (Speaking of Walmart, this is the state with the most Walmart stores.)

These are the 16 retailers and package deliverers adding the most workers for the holidays

15. Belk
> Seasonal hiring: 5,000

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14. 800 Flowers
> Seasonal hiring: 10,000

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11. Burlington
> Seasonal hiring: 20,000

11. Hobby Lobby
> Seasonal hiring: 20,000

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11. Michaels
> Seasonal hiring: 20,000

Nordstrom (CC BY 2.0) by Mike Mozart

10. Nordstrom
> Seasonal hiring: 28,600

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9. U.S. Postal Service
> Seasonal hiring: 40,000

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Gap (CC BY 2.0) by Mike Mozart

8. Gap
> Seasonal hiring: 65,000

7. Macy’s
> Seasonal hiring: 76,000

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Fedex (CC BY 2.0) by erikleenaars

5. FedEx
> Seasonal hiring: 90,000

Kohl's (CC BY 2.0) by Mike Mozart

5. Kohl’s
> Seasonal hiring: 90,000

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3. Target
> Seasonal hiring: 100,000

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3. UPS
> Seasonal hiring: 100,000

1. Amazon
> Seasonal hiring: 150,000

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1. Walmart
> Seasonal hiring: 150,000

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.