Retailers seen adding up to 7,600 seasonal jobs in Nevada

Retailers will add up to 7,600 seasonal jobs in Nevada during the upcoming holidays, officials for the Retail Association of Nevada said Wednesday.

Many of those jobs will come from major national retailers, the retail association said in a statement. Kohl’s, Wal-Mart Stores, Macy’s, and Game Stop all have plans to increase their seasonal workforce this year. Kohl’s is planning to hire 17,000 more employees this holiday season (up 34 percent from last year), with roughly 50 employees added per store.

Wal-Mart Stores is increasing its seasonal workforce by about 10 percent, or up to 60,000 employees this year, and nearly one-fourth of these employees are expected to stay on permanently after the holidays. Macy’s will hire 86,000 workers, an increase of 3.6 percent from last year. Game Stop is hiring nearly 50 percent more seasonal employees this year, or from 17,000 last year to 25,000 this year.

Consolidating the major hiring announcements made thus far in the season, the Retail Association of Nevada estimates national retailers will hire about 3,700 seasonal employees in Nevada this year.

The remainder of the 7,600 seasonal jobs are expected to come from local retail shops and e-commerce outfits throughout the state. Anecdotal reports suggest that many of these local hires end up staying on in some capacity after the peak of the holidays has passed, the retailers group said.

While not considered “traditional” retailers, shipping companies like UPS and FedEx are of increasing importance to the success of the modern holiday shopping season. FedEx plans to add more than 50,000 workers for the upcoming season, up from 40,000 last year. Similarly, UPS plans to add between 90,000 and 95,000 workers this holiday season, up from 85,000 last year. Notably, UPS planned to hire 55,000 seasonal workers last year, but high package volume led to the addition of 85,000 seasonal employees instead.

Contributing to UPS’s hiring plans this year are growing e-commerce sales expectations by both online-only and bricks and mortar stores with an online presence. While the largest e-commerce company, Amazon, has yet to release holiday hiring plans, EMarketer estimates e-commerce sales will reach $72.4 billion this year, up 17 percent from last year, comprising 8.4 percent of total holiday sales.

“Nevada has continued its upward trend in terms of both employment and taxable retail sales,” Bryan Wachter of the Retail Association said in the statement. “Total employment in Nevada has experienced 44 months of consecutive year-over-year growth, while retail trade employment has shown 47 months of consecutive year-over-year growth. On the spending side, overall taxable retail sales have had 49 months of consecutive year-over-year growth. The addition of seasonal hires will likely add to overall holiday spending this year.”

National estimates from employee-placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas suggest seasonal employment from October to December could reach 800,000 this year, up 1.8 percent from last year and the highest level since 1999.